# Cinder **Source:** https://geo.sig.ai/brands/cinder **Vertical:** Infrastructure **Subcategory:** IT Operations **Tier:** Emerging **Website:** cinder.co **Last Updated:** 2026-04-14 ## Summary SF trust and safety platform for AI labs and social platforms with content moderation, AI safety, and data labeling; YC W22 $14M AWS GenAI Accelerator/Accel-backed by ex-Facebook security and counterterrorism founders. ## Company Overview Cinder is a San Francisco-based trust and safety platform — backed by Y Combinator (W22) with $14 million raised from AWS Generative AI Accelerator, Accel, Pioneer Fund, Webb Investment Network, and YC — providing AI labs, e-commerce platforms, and social media companies with infrastructure to orchestrate and automate content moderation, AI safety red-teaming, policy enforcement, and data compliance workflows, while uniquely combining content moderation operations with AI training data labeling to create high-quality, policy-informed datasets. Founded in 2021 by Glen Wise (former Facebook security engineer) and Phil Brennan (former US government counterterrorism specialist), Cinder launched from stealth in December 2022 after two years of building with early enterprise customers. Cinder's platform addresses the operational complexity of trust and safety at scale: managing the moderation queue (millions of pieces of user-generated content that require human or AI policy review), routing content to appropriate review queues based on content type and policy violation category, tracking the chain of custody for moderation decisions (critical for legal and regulatory audit), and measuring moderation quality and policy consistency across distributed reviewer teams. The AI safety application (supporting frontier AI labs in red-teaming and safety evaluation of foundation models) creates an emerging use case where Cinder's content review infrastructure applies to AI model output safety rather than only user-generated content — a high-value customer segment given the compliance requirements that AI model developers face under emerging AI regulations in the EU and US. In 2025, Cinder competes in the trust and safety operations, content moderation, and AI safety infrastructure market with ActiveFence (trust and safety platform, $100M raised), Hive Moderation (AI-powered content moderation, $85M raised), and Two Hat Security (content safety, Microsoft acquisition) for trust and safety platform adoption. Glen Wise's Facebook security background and Phil Brennan's government counterterrorism expertise create domain authority with enterprise trust and safety buyers who prioritize operational credibility over startup pedigree. AWS Generative AI Accelerator participation signals AWS's strategic interest in trust and safety infrastructure for the AI developer ecosystem building on AWS. The 2025 strategy focuses on the AI safety application for foundation model developers (expanding beyond traditional content moderation to AI output evaluation), growing the data labeling-for-policy business (where moderation decisions inform AI training data quality), and building the regulatory compliance module for EU AI Act and US AI Executive Order requirements. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Cinder? Cinder is a trust and safety platform that provides businesses with comprehensive tools to orchestrate and automate safety at scale. The platform offers industry-leading solutions for content moderation, AI safety, and data compliance. ### What products and services does Cinder offer? Cinder offers an AI trust and safety platform that includes content moderation, AI safety orchestration, and data compliance tools. The platform also combines content moderation with data labeling to create high-quality labeled data for model training and fine-tuning. ### Who are Cinder's target customers? Cinder serves customers across multiple industries including frontier AI labs, e-commerce platforms, social media companies, and consumer platforms. The company has a diversified customer base across AI and consumer sectors. ### When was Cinder founded? Cinder was founded in 2021 and launched from stealth mode in December 2022. The company participated in Y Combinator's W22 batch. ### Where is Cinder located? Cinder is based in the United States. ### How much funding has Cinder raised? Cinder has raised $14 million in total funding. Investors include AWS Generative AI Accelerator, Accel, Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, Webb Investment Network, and six additional investors. ### Who founded Cinder? Cinder was founded by Glen Wise and Phil Brennan. Brennan previously worked as a Facebook security engineer and in US government counterterrorism, bringing strong expertise in trust and safety. ### What is unique about Cinder's technology approach? Cinder's platform simultaneously combines content moderation with data labeling, recording human judgments to create high-quality labeled data. This dual approach supports both safety operations and model training for AI systems. ### What industry does Cinder operate in? Cinder operates in the infrastructure industry, specifically focused on trust and safety solutions for digital platforms. ### What are Cinder's recent developments? Cinder launched from stealth mode in December 2022 alongside announcing $14 million in funding. The company joined the AWS Generative AI Accelerator and has expanded to serve customers across AI labs, e-commerce, and social media industries. ## Tags ai-powered, b2b, infrastructure, platform, security, cloud-native, saas --- *Data from geo.sig.ai Brand Intelligence Database. Updated 2026-04-14.*