Proofpoint, the email and data security company, said on 12 February 2026 that it had acquired Acuvity, a Sunnyvale, California, startup that sells security and governance software for enterprise use of AI. The deal had already been completed when it was announced.
Neither company disclosed the price or other financial terms. Captain Compliance, a privacy news site, reported that Acuvity's engineering team is joining Proofpoint.
Proofpoint said Acuvity's technology will become part of what it calls the agentic workspace, the setting in which employees and AI agents work on the same business processes. Acuvity's products will sit next to Proofpoint's existing lines for collaboration security and for data security and governance, under a third pillar Proofpoint labels AI security.
What Acuvity built
Acuvity was founded in 2023 and describes itself as an AI security and governance platform for enterprises. Its software inspects AI activity while it runs and enforces policy across applications, agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, the connectors that let AI models reach outside tools and data.
According to Proofpoint, the product covers AI use from endpoints and web browsers through to MCP servers and AI tools installed locally on a device, naming OpenClaw and Ollama as examples. It uses AI detection models that assess the context and intent of an interaction. Customers can use it to control how staff and systems use outside AI services, and to protect AI models and applications they build themselves.
Captain Compliance reported that Acuvity brought its platform, called RYNO, out of stealth in June 2025. When the company first launched in September 2024, it described features such as language-based access controls, real-time enforcement and tools that show which generative AI services employees are using, FinTech Global reported.
“Securing that future requires a new approach — one that governs how AI thinks, acts and learns in real time.”
Why Proofpoint is buying
Proofpoint built its business on protecting people from email and collaboration threats, and in recent years added data loss prevention. Its pitch now is that AI agents need the same oversight as human staff, because they read data, carry out tasks and make decisions inside company systems.
Ryan Kalember, Proofpoint's chief strategy officer, said securing this way of working requires an understanding of human intent, agent behaviour and risk in real time. He said the combined company could cover people, data and AI on one platform. Proofpoint says it is used by more than 80 of the Fortune 100 and over 10,000 large enterprises.
Captain Compliance noted that Proofpoint agreed in May 2025 to buy Hornetsecurity, a German provider of Microsoft 365 security, in a deal that valued the company at more than $1 billion. It reported that Kalember expects Acuvity's products to reach the smaller organisations that use Hornetsecurity as well.
The founders and the funding
Acuvity is led by co-founder and chief executive Satyam Sinha. Captain Compliance reported that Sinha previously co-founded Aporeto, a microsegmentation company that was acquired by Palo Alto Networks. Proofpoint's release says only that Acuvity was founded by cybersecurity and engineering veterans.
The company emerged in September 2024 with a $9 million seed round led by Foundation Capital. Individual investors Basil Alwan, Sri Reddy and Jonathan Siddharth also took part, FinTech Global reported. No later funding round has been reported.
Sinha said in the announcement that intelligence now lives in interactions, decisions and autonomous agents acting for their users, and that this calls for security that governs AI behaviour in real time.
A crowded field for AI governance
Large security vendors have moved into AI governance as companies adopt chat assistants, coding tools and autonomous agents faster than security teams can review them. Captain Compliance listed Microsoft, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Netskope and Zscaler among the companies expanding into the area.
Buying an early-stage startup gives Proofpoint a product that already covers newer parts of the AI stack, such as MCP servers and models run locally, rather than building one itself. Proofpoint did not say when Acuvity's capabilities would appear in its own products or whether Acuvity will keep selling under its own brand.
