When Matvey Kukuy and Ildar Iskhakov sold their previous companies to Grafana and Elastic, they didn’t expect to jump straight into another startup. But a new wave of autonomous “agents” quickly became too risky for them to ignore.
That gap between promise and catastrophe became the seed for Archestra, a security-first system designed to let companies connect these agents to their data without losing control. Today, they raised a $3.3 million pre-seed, led by Concept Ventures, joined by Zero Prime Ventures, Celero Ventures, RTP Global, Aloniq, and angels from BCG, Nginx, incident.io, and ElevenLabs.
The rogue agent problem
Linking powerful agents into company systems offers obvious upside. They can draft client emails, sift through HR records, or pull sales data without human prompting. But without safeguards, they can just as easily copy salary spreadsheets to public forums or delete strategic documents.
The underlying connection standard, known as the Model Context Protocol (MCP), is getting traction among engineers. It makes it easier for software to tap into tools like Slack, email servers, or internal file stores.
In a conversation with TFN, Matvey Kukuy, CEO and co-founder, Archestra, shares: “We recognised a critical gap in the market that urgently needs addressing. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is on track to completely transform how AI is leveraged within companies. It has the potential to make autonomous agents far more efficient and effective. But, right now, it’s completely unsuitable for the enterprise.”
Archestra positions itself as that missing guardrail layer. Its open-source platform governs what an agent can see, change, or share, with the kind of permission control and data oversight that big companies expect.
From schoolmates to serial entrepreneurs
Kukuy and Iskhakov’s relationship goes back to school days. They both left their home country for the US, co-founded Amixr (sold to Grafana), and then Kukuy co-created Keep (sold to Elastic). This year, they’ve reconnected in London with founding engineer Joey Orlando, another Grafana alum.
“We are currently just the three founding team members of different nationalities, having launched in June. We’re excited to build out a global team of talent in the coming months,” Kukuy says.
Behind Archestra’s tech
Archestra’s open‑source MCP orchestrator acts as a control layer, letting companies determine exactly what an agent can see, modify, or share. It handles orchestration, guardrailing, context management, and dynamic permissioning, enabling even non‑technical users in HR or sales to use these systems safely.
“We believe our enterprise-grade, open-source solution focusing on enabling non-technical users to run AI agents and MCP servers safely is a true market-first,” Kukuy says.
Kukuy points to competition from bigger iPaaS players like MuleSoft and Glean, plus a wave of younger closed‑source startups. The team bets that openness and usability for non‑technical staff will set Archestra apart.
What’s next?
The company plans to scale its platform across global enterprise clients and eventually allow hundreds of thousands of employees to benefit from autonomous systems without expanding their security attack surface.
“Archestra will take care of the routine, such as schedule management, drafting reports, processing emails, leaving more time for creative tasks,” Kukuy notes.
