Who We Are
OpenBox was founded by Tahir Mahmood and Asim Ahmad, two leaders with deeply complementary backgrounds across institutional finance, enterprise systems, and frontier technology. Together, they bring decades of experience operating in environments where trust, security, and reliability are non-negotiable.
Tahir Mahmood
Co-founder
Tahir Mahmood is a pioneering technologist with four decades of experience building large-scale, mission-critical systems. He began his career as a founding member of Microsoft as Technical Lead for Operating Systems and Programming Languages, and is the sole inventor on over 40 patents spanning AI, Web3, IoT, and distributed systems, including Push E-mail.
Asim Ahmad
Co-founder
Asim Ahmad is a Founding Partner of Eterna Capital with over a decade of experience working in regulated industries across Venture Capital, Institutional Finance and Technology. He previously worked in BlackRock’s Institutional Client Business, advising large organizations on strategy, governance, and risk.
Our Story
Why We Created OpenBox
As AI systems evolved from isolated models into autonomous agents, the gap between trust and execution became impossible to ignore. It is no longer enough to log activity after the fact or rely on internal assurances. Organizations need a way to understand, govern, and prove what their systems are doing in real time. OpenBox was created to address that gap directly by rethinking trust as a foundational layer.
Why Now?
Agentic systems are making decisions and interacting with other systems at speeds and scales that exceed human oversight. At the same time, regulatory expectations are increasing, cross-organizational agentic interactions are becoming the norm, and the cost of failure is rising as incidents are no longer contained within a single system. What was once a manageable risk has become a structural one, and the question for enterprise is now how that governance can operate at the same pace and scale as the systems themselves.
Closing the Trust Gap
This challenge extends far beyond OpenBox. As AI ecosystems mature, the market is converging on a clear reality: fragmented governance tools, post-hoc audits, and siloed controls are no longer sufficient. Trust must become portable and verifiable, across organizational boundaries and technology stacks. That requires a shared foundation, not a collection of disconnected solutions. OpenBox is built as a response to that broader need. A trust platform that allows organizations to operate with flexibility, interoperability and accountability.
Our Values
Accountable
We take responsibility for what we build and how it’s used. When something doesn’t work, we own it, learn from it, and improve.
Integrity
We don’t ask for trust by default, we earn it. We back up what we say with evidence and build relationships and systems that stand up to scrutiny.
Flexible
We believe progress comes from collaboration. We design our company, technology, and partnerships to work openly with others.
Transparent
We believe trust starts with honesty. We communicate clearly, and avoid hidden complexities in our product, and how we work with customers.
