Fiddler AI
Fiddler AI is a Palo Alto-based AI observability and governance platform founded in October 2018 by Krishna Gade (CEO, formerly at Facebook), Amit Paka (CPO), and Manoj Cheenath.
Profile
Observability and governance platform for AI agents and large language models, helping enterprises monitor, explain, and control AI systems in production.
Fiddler AI is a Palo Alto-based AI observability and governance platform founded in October 2018 by Krishna Gade (CEO, formerly at Facebook), Amit Paka (CPO), and Manoj Cheenath. The company raised its Series C in January 2026—$30 million led by RPS Ventures with participation from Mozilla Ventures, Lightspeed, Lux Capital, and others—bringing total funding to $100 million. Fiddler has grown revenue 4x in the prior 18 months and employs approximately 114 people across three continents as of early 2026.
The platform addresses enterprise demand for visibility and control over machine-learning and AI systems. Originally positioned as an explainability engine for ML models, Fiddler has shifted toward agentic observability and governance as enterprises deploy autonomous agents into production. The product suite includes Fiddler Guardrails (for detecting hallucinations and jailbreak attempts), continuous monitoring and evaluation, and a control plane for policy enforcement across the AI lifecycle.
Named customers include Nielsen, Mastercard, U.S. Navy, DTCC, and Integral Ad Science; Nielsen's multi-agent copilot achieved 95% accuracy detecting harmful instructions and 99% precision blocking jailbreaks through Fiddler Guardrails. Fiddler achieved AWS Pattern Partners status in 2025 and was named the #1 company in AI Agent Security by CB Insights.
The company is a native SageMaker AI partner and Google Cloud partner with integrations into Databricks and other enterprise platforms. Positioned in regulated verticals (healthcare, financial services, insurance), Fiddler competes with Arize, Whylabs, and Datadog's AI observability suite.
Who buys this
- Financial services and payments companies monitoring fraud detection and LLM-based copilots
- Large retailers and gig marketplaces scaling AI copilots for customer experience
- Healthcare enterprises managing regulated AI systems with compliance requirements
- Government and defense agencies deploying ML models for critical operations
Publicly disclosed clients
- Nielsen
- Mastercard
- U.S. Navy
- DTCC
- Integral Ad Science
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- Strong funding trajectory ($100M total, recent $30M Series C) and 4x revenue growth in 18 months signals market traction
- Native AWS SageMaker AI integration and Google Cloud partnerships reduce enterprise deployment friction
- Agentic focus puts Fiddler ahead of earlier-generation observability tools as enterprises shift from static models to autonomous systems
Watch for
- Customer concentration in financial services and government—commodity observability from Datadog or enterprise incumbent vendors may compress margins
- Agentic observability market still nascent; unclear if Fiddler's pricing and positioning can scale if demand plateaus post-2026 hype cycle
- Series C governance focus suggests upcoming IPO or acquisition appetite; founder retention and leadership stability (Gade tenure since 2018) remain unleveraged risks
Recent moves
Key Information
- Industry
- AI Observability
- Founded
- 2018
- Headquarters
- Palo Alto
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Fiddler AI?
Fiddler AI is an observability and governance platform for AI agents and large language models. Founded in 2018, it helps enterprises monitor, explain, and control AI systems in production. The platform includes guardrails for detecting hallucinations and jailbreak attempts, continuous monitoring, and policy enforcement.
Who founded Fiddler AI?
Krishna Gade (CEO, formerly at Facebook), Amit Paka (CPO), and Manoj Cheenath founded Fiddler AI in October 2018. Gade has led the company since its inception as it grew from $0 to $100 million in total funding through three venture rounds.
What are Fiddler AI's main features?
Fiddler AI's core features include Fiddler Guardrails for detecting hallucinations and jailbreak attempts, continuous monitoring and evaluation of AI systems, and a control plane for enforcing policies across the AI lifecycle. The platform integrates with AWS SageMaker, Google Cloud, and Databricks.
Which companies use Fiddler AI?
Notable customers include Nielsen, Mastercard, U.S. Navy, DTCC, and Integral Ad Science. Nielsen's multi-agent copilot achieved 95% accuracy detecting harmful instructions and 99% precision blocking jailbreaks using Fiddler Guardrails. Customers span financial services, government, healthcare, and retail sectors.
How much funding has Fiddler AI raised?
Fiddler AI has raised $100 million in total funding across three rounds. In January 2026, it closed a $30 million Series C led by RPS Ventures with participation from Mozilla Ventures, Lightspeed, and Lux Capital. This funding reflects 4x revenue growth over 18 months.
What does Fiddler Guardrails do?
Fiddler Guardrails detects hallucinations and jailbreak attempts in AI systems by identifying harmful instructions and prompts designed to bypass safety guidelines. Nielsen's multi-agent copilot deployment achieved 95% accuracy detecting harmful instructions and 99% precision blocking jailbreak attempts using the product.
How Fiddler AI compares
Direct head-to-head against 3 competitors. Picked by 7wData.
Fiddler AI
- Positioning
- Observability and governance platform for AI agents and large language models, helping enterprises monitor, explain, and control AI systems in production.
- Customer segments
- Financial services and payments companies monitoring fraud detection and LLM-based copilots
- Strengths
- Strong funding trajectory ($100M total, recent $30M Series C) and 4x revenue growth in 18 months signals market traction
- Watch for
- Customer concentration in financial services and government—commodity observability from Datadog or enterprise incumbent vendors may compress margins
- Recent moves
- Fiddler Raises $30M Series C to Power the Control Plane for AI Agents
Arize AI
- Positioning
- AI evaluation and observability platform for enterprises monitoring LLMs and agents in production across consumer and regulated industries.
- Customer segments
- Enterprise ML and product teams at consumer internet, retail, and travel companies; Booking.com, Uber, Duolingo, PepsiCo among disclosed names.
- Strengths
- Phoenix open-source library exceeds two million monthly downloads, building a developer adoption pipeline that feeds paid enterprise contracts.
- Watch for
- Microsoft M12 sits on the cap table while Azure AI monitoring expands; investor-competitor overlap may complicate Arize roadmap independence.
- Recent moves
- $70M Series C closed February 2025, led by Adams Street Partners with Microsoft M12 and Datadog participating as co-investors.
Arthur AI
- Positioning
- AI observability, security, and governance platform targeting enterprises and government agencies deploying models and agents in regulated environments.
- Customer segments
- Defense, healthcare, and financial services enterprises; compliance and security-focused ML engineering teams with audit and regulatory obligations.
- Strengths
- Agent Discovery and Governance module, launched December 2025, maps deployed agent inventory and enforces policy across production environments.
- Watch for
- Last disclosed funding was a $42M Series B in September 2022; no subsequent round in three-plus years raises runway questions.
- Recent moves
- Agent Discovery and Governance platform listed on Google Cloud Marketplace January 2026, extending agentic governance reach to GCP enterprise customers.
Datadog
- Positioning
- Infrastructure and application monitoring incumbent extending LLM and agent observability as a bundled addition to its existing enterprise platform.
- Customer segments
- DevOps, SRE, and platform engineering teams at enterprises already consolidating infrastructure and application monitoring spend on Datadog.
- Strengths
- Unified billing across infra, APM, security, and AI observability removes procurement friction for enterprises already contracted to the platform.
- Watch for
- LLM Observability reached GA only in 2024; regulated-industry buyers cite thinner governance and policy enforcement depth versus purpose-built platforms.
- Recent moves
- AI Agent Monitoring launched generally available at DASH June 2025; AWS strategic collaboration agreement covering AI observability announced December 2025.
Sources
- www.fiddler.ai — Current product positioning, AI control plane for agents, guardrails and agentic observability focus
- www.businesswire.com — Series C funding ($30M), lead investor RPS Ventures, total funding to $100M, AWS Pattern Partners status
- www.fiddler.ai — Named customers including Nielsen, Mastercard, DTCC, U.S. Navy, Integral Ad Science; Nielsen case study with 95% accuracy metrics
- www.crunchbase.com — Founder information (Krishna Gade, Amit Paka, Manoj Cheenath), October 2018 founding date, Series A/B/C funding details
- dallasinnovates.com — Series B Prime extension ($18.6M, December 2024), bringing total Series B to $50M, investor list including Cisco, Capgemini, Dallas VC
- www.fiddler.ai — Series C positioning as control plane for AI agents, revenue growth 4x in 18 months, CB Insights AI Agent Security #1 ranking