When Marc Frankel and Daniel Bardenstein founded Manifest in 2022, it wasn’t a market play, it was a response. Log4Shell hit like a sucker punch to the global software supply chain, and most companies were still looking for the gloves. Marc, fresh off Expanse (Palo Alto Networks) and Palantir, teamed up with Daniel, ex-CISA Chief of Tech Strategy and cyber ops lead at the Defense Digital Service, to build the kind of platform they wished already existed. Spoiler: it didn’t.
What they built wasn’t just a scanner or a tool. It was a full-spectrum SBOM and AIBOM engine built for the real world, where Fortune 500, defense agencies, and healthcare giants are trying to trace not just lines of code, but lines of responsibility. Because when the question is “what the hell is running in our stack?” Manifest doesn’t give you guesses. It gives you the map, the inventory, and the flashlight.
That clarity? It’s not a nice-to-have anymore. With AI flooding every layer of enterprise infrastructure, and regulators stacking rules like Tetris blocks, transparency is the new perimeter. Manifest saw it coming. Their platform inventories AI models, maps dependencies, flags tampering, and helps customers handle zero-days before the press gets wind. Think of it like cybersecurity's command center meets Minority Report, but for software and AI risk.
That vision just picked up more fuel. $15M Series A, led by Ensemble VC, with backup from AE Ventures, First Round Capital, Homebrew, Leap435, Overmatch Ventures, and XYZ Venture Capital. Add it to their $6M seed round last year, and the total hits $23M. That’s not hype. That’s belief, from folks who’ve seen enough decks to know when the product actually delivers.
And it’s not just about cash. Manifest’s platform is now trusted by the United States Air Force, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and a growing list of enterprises across defense, healthcare, finance, and aerospace. They've scanned over a million dependencies, assessed 200,000+ vulnerabilities, and helped their customers slash supply chain response time by 90%. In this game, speed isn't nice. It's survival.
So yeah, some companies pitch their vision. Manifest documents it. Automatically. At scale. With full lifecycle coverage. From SBOMs to AIBOMs, they’re not just revealing what’s under the hood. They’re helping you make sure it doesn’t explode.
Let’s connect and keep the momentum going across the tech ecosystem. Whether you’re a founder shaping the future, a leader driving change, a VC backing bold ideas, or an investor spotting the next big thing—together, we’re pushing boundaries. Proud to be building the future with you.
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