Serval, an enterprise AI company, has announced a $47 million Series A funding round led by Redpoint Ventures, with additional participation from prominent venture firms including First Round Capital, General Catalyst, and Box Group. While the backing from top-tier investors is notable, the company’s real differentiator lies in its growing roster of high-profile clients—among them Perplexity, Mercor, and Together AI—key players in the AI space. At its core, Serval is applying agentic AI to transform IT service management. Unlike many AI tools that rely on a single, all-encompassing agent, Serval uses a two-tiered system designed to balance automation with control. One agent is responsible for building internal automations—such as software approvals or device provisioning—while a second, help desk-facing agent handles user requests by invoking those pre-built tools, following strict rules set by IT managers. Serval’s CEO, Jake Stauch, emphasizes simplicity and scalability. “We don’t want them to feel the marginal cost of building these automations,” he said. “We want to make it easier to automate something forever than do it manually once.” This philosophy is central to the company’s vision: to make automation seamless and sustainable, not a one-off effort. The separation of duties between the tool-building and tool-using agents is a deliberate design choice. It allows IT leaders to maintain oversight and enforce security policies. For instance, when a new automation is created, the manager defines exactly when and how it can be used—ensuring that no AI agent can act without proper authorization. This is a direct response to the growing concern around rogue AI behavior, such as a help desk agent blindly executing a dangerous command. Stauch illustrates the risk: “You don’t want someone to go into Slack and say, hey, I want to delete all the data at the company, and the very helpful AI agent responds, ‘Great, I’ll delete all the data.’ Instead, it will say, ‘Hey, I don’t have a tool for deleting all the data. But I do have a tool for resetting your password or doing one of these other tasks.’” Because the underlying automations are deterministic and built with strict permission logic, they can enforce complex security protocols—like requiring multi-factor authentication or limiting actions to specific time windows. If those rules need to be updated, another AI agent can automatically locate and modify the relevant code, ensuring the system stays current and secure. This layered approach gives enterprises the power to harness the efficiency of agentic AI while retaining full visibility and control. “You want to have full visibility and control into what that AI agent is doing,” Stauch said. “And you do that by using Serval to build those tools and customize the permissions and approvals behind them.” As AI continues to reshape enterprise operations, Serval’s model offers a promising path forward—one where automation is both powerful and safe.