SAN FRANCISCO: Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company, known as AIUC, has raised $40 million in Series A funding as businesses increasingly seek ways to evaluate the safety, reliability and risks of autonomous artificial intelligence agents before deploying them at scale.

The funding round was led by Ribbit Capital with participation from First Harmonic. The latest investment takes AIUC’s total funding to approximately $55 million, including an earlier $15 million seed round.

AIUC is developing an independent assessment and certification system designed specifically for AI agents. Its central framework, known as AIUC-1, is intended to give companies a structured way to evaluate how an AI system behaves when confronted with security threats, unreliable information and unexpected situations.

The company says its testing process examines AI agents across approximately 5,000 risk and attack combinations tailored to the organization and type of system being evaluated.

The assessments include scenarios involving jailbreak attempts, hallucinations and potential data leaks. AI-based systems are used during parts of the testing process, while human reviewers remain involved in verifying the final assessment.

The approach reflects a growing challenge for companies adopting autonomous AI. Traditional software security processes were largely designed around predictable applications, while AI agents can make decisions, interact with tools and respond dynamically to changing circumstances.

That creates additional questions for businesses about what an AI agent can access, how it behaves when given unexpected instructions and whether it can reliably follow established restrictions.

AIUC is attempting to address this gap by combining technical testing with certification and insurance-related infrastructure.

The company says its AIUC-1 framework has been developed with input from more than 250 security and risk leaders from large enterprises. The objective is to create a common set of expectations that organizations can use when assessing AI systems.

Several AI companies and technology providers have already participated in the certification ecosystem, reflecting growing interest in independent assessments of AI agents.

AIUC’s latest funding will also support an expansion beyond individual AI applications toward more advanced AI models. The company plans to extend its evaluation and insurance approach to frontier AI systems as their capabilities continue to increase.

The move comes as businesses deploy AI agents for increasingly important tasks, including software development, customer service, legal work and other enterprise operations.

For companies, the ability to independently evaluate an AI system before deployment could become increasingly important as autonomous systems gain access to sensitive information and business tools.

The insurance component adds another layer to the company’s strategy. By connecting technical evaluations with financial protection, AIUC aims to create a framework in which organizations can better understand potential risks before allowing AI agents to operate in critical environments.

The development highlights a broader shift in the AI industry. As AI systems become more capable, businesses are increasingly focused not only on what these systems can accomplish but also on how reliably and safely they operate.

AIUC’s expansion into model-level assessments suggests that independent testing, certification and risk management could become an increasingly important part of the AI ecosystem.