Galileo
Galileo, founded in 2021 and headquartered in the United States, is an AI observability and evaluation engineering platform.
Profile
Galileo provides a platform to evaluate, monitor, and safeguard AI models and agents in production, helping developers detect and fix failures before they impact users.
Galileo, founded in 2021 and headquartered in the United States, is an AI observability and evaluation engineering platform. It was acquired by Cisco in a deal announced in late 2024 and closed in early 2025, with the company now operating as part of Cisco's Outshift division. The platform provides tools for evaluating, monitoring, and safeguarding large language models (LLMs) and AI agents in production.
Its core offering includes over 20 out-of-box evaluators for RAG, agent, safety, and security use cases, along with custom evaluator capabilities. A key differentiator is its ability to distill expensive LLM-as-judge evaluators into compact, low-latency 'Luna' models that run at significantly lower cost. The platform also offers an insights engine that analyzes agent behavior to identify failure modes and prescribe fixes, and a guardrail system that allows pre-production evals to become production governance policies.
Galileo raised $23.1 million in total venture funding, including an $18 million Series A led by Battery Ventures in November 2022. The company's customer base includes enterprises such as Writer, Ema, and NVIDIA, as well as other unnamed large organizations. Post-acquisition, Galileo is integrated with Cisco's broader security and observability portfolio, though specific revenue or headcount figures have not been publicly disclosed since the acquisition.
Who buys this
- Enterprises deploying large language models and AI agents in production
- AI/ML teams at technology companies needing evaluation and guardrail tools
- Organizations in regulated industries requiring safety and security monitoring for AI systems
- Companies building RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) and agent-based applications
Publicly disclosed clients
- Writer
- Ema
- NVIDIA
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- Acquired by Cisco in 2024, providing access to a large enterprise distribution channel and integration with Cisco's security and observability products.
- Luna model distillation technology reduces evaluation costs by 96% compared to LLM-as-judge approaches, enabling real-time monitoring of 100% of traffic.
- Eval-to-guardrail lifecycle allows pre-production evaluation metrics to automatically control agent actions, tool access, and escalation paths without custom code.
Watch for
- As a Cisco subsidiary, Galileo's product roadmap and pricing are now subject to Cisco's strategic priorities, which may shift focus away from standalone platform growth.
- The AI observability market is crowded with competitors including Arize AI, WhyLabs, and LangSmith, all vying for the same enterprise customers.
- No public revenue or headcount data since the acquisition, making it difficult to assess organic growth or customer retention independent of Cisco's broader portfolio.
Key Information
- Industry
- MLOps
- Founded
- 2021
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Galileo AI and what does it do?
Galileo is an AI observability and evaluation engineering platform that helps developers evaluate, monitor, and safeguard large language models and AI agents in production. It detects and fixes failures before they impact users, offering over 20 out-of-box evaluators.
How does Galileo's Luna model reduce evaluation costs?
Galileo's Luna technology distills expensive LLM-as-judge evaluators into compact, low-latency models that run at significantly lower cost. This approach reduces evaluation costs by 96%, enabling real-time monitoring of 100% of production traffic without breaking the bank.
What is the eval-to-guardrail lifecycle in Galileo?
The eval-to-guardrail lifecycle allows pre-production evaluation metrics to automatically become production governance policies. This means metrics can control agent actions, tool access, and escalation paths without requiring custom code, streamlining the transition from testing to live deployment.
When was Galileo acquired by Cisco and why?
Cisco announced its intent to acquire Galileo in late 2024, with the deal closing in early 2025. The acquisition aims to integrate Galileo's AI observability tools into Cisco's security and observability portfolio, providing a large enterprise distribution channel for the platform.
Who are some notable customers of Galileo?
Galileo's notable enterprise customers include Writer, Ema, and NVIDIA. These companies use the platform to evaluate, monitor, and safeguard their large language models and AI agents in production, benefiting from its comprehensive evaluation and guardrail capabilities.
What should I watch for with Galileo after the Cisco acquisition?
As a Cisco subsidiary, Galileo's product roadmap and pricing may shift based on Cisco's strategic priorities. The AI observability market is crowded with competitors like Arize AI and WhyLabs, and no public revenue or headcount data is available since the acquisition.
Sources
- www.rungalileo.io — Company description, product features (Luna models, eval-to-guardrail), customer testimonials from Writer, Ema, NVIDIA, and Cisco Outshift.
- blogs.cisco.com — Cisco's announcement of intent to acquire Galileo, confirming the acquisition and strategic rationale.
- techcrunch.com — Series A funding round of $18 million led by Battery Ventures, total raised $23.1 million, and launch of free tier.
- techcrunch.com — Galileo's emergence from stealth in May 2022, initial product focus on ML model development and debugging.