As AI agents rapidly become part of business operations across industries—from financial fraud detection to sales prospecting—the demand for smarter, more compliant internet access is growing. But while these agents are capable of powerful web-based tasks, unrestricted access to the internet without proper oversight can lead to unpredictable, and even risky, outcomes.
To address this, AI infrastructure startup Tavily has raised a $20 million Series A round led by Insight Partners, bringing its total funding to $25 million. The company’s mission is clear: help enterprise AI agents browse the internet securely and in line with internal compliance policies.
“Governance, risk, and compliance at the enterprise is so important now,” said George Mathew, Managing Director at Insight Partners, in an interview with TechCrunch. “If you just let [agents] operate freely, it’s going to be the wild, wild west.”
Building Safe Web Access for AI Agents
Founded in 2023 by data scientist Rotem Weiss, Tavily began as an open-source project called GPT Researcher, which gained traction before tools like ChatGPT enabled web browsing. After going viral and racking up nearly 20,000 GitHub stars, Weiss saw an opportunity to scale the project for enterprise needs.
Today, Tavily works with companies like Groq, MongoDB, Cohere, and Writer, enabling their internal AI agents to access, search, and extract structured data from both public websites and private company resources. The platform ensures that AI browsing activity aligns with the organization’s specific security, privacy, and compliance frameworks.
Unlike simply plugging an AI model into the web, Tavily’s solution adds a critical layer of governance and reliability—making it suitable for enterprise deployment.
Competing in a Fast-Growing Market
Tavily is entering a competitive space. Rivals like Exa, which raised $17 million from Lightspeed, Nvidia, and Y Combinator, and smaller players like Firecrawl, are also offering web search infrastructure for AI agents. Larger companies like OpenAI and Perplexity are building similar solutions tailored to developers.
Still, Weiss is confident Tavily can lead the market. “Our goal is to onboard the next billion agents to the web,” he shared with TechCrunch.
As businesses increasingly rely on AI to automate research, sales, and data analysis, tools like Tavily that ensure responsible web access are becoming essential—not optional.
