AI security startup Outtake raises $40M from Satya Nadella, Bill Ackman and tech leaders

AI security startup Outtake raises $40M from Iconiq, Satya Nadella, Bill Ackman and other big names

Outtake, which makes an agentic cybersecurity platform to help enterprises detect, investigate and take down identity fraud, has raised a $40 million Series B round of funding. While that might not sound like a lot given the huge sums some AI companies are raising, the names involved in this financing reads like a tech industry who's who. The round was led by ICONIQ's Murali Joshi, who led the firm's investments in companies like Anthropic, Datadog, Drata, 1Password, among others. Angels who invested include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora; Pershing Square Holdings CEO Bill Ackman; Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar; Anduril co-founder Trae Stephens; Former OpenAI VP Bob McGrew; Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, and Former AT&T CEO John Donovan. Whew! The reason for the excitement? Outtake, founded in 2023 by a former Palantir engineer, Alex Dhillon, has found a way to automate what has largely been the manual problem of spotting and taking down digital identity posers: impersonation accounts, malicious domains posing as the company's, rogue apps, fraudulent ads, and more. This problem has grown even more difficult because AI has enabled attackers to be more convincing and faster in their efforts. "We kept hearing whispers in our network about an AI company that was finally solving digital misrepresentation at scale. Honestly, we were skeptical," Joshi told TechCrunch. "Historically, detection and takedown was (and to some extent even today) a manual, human-intensive process that couldn't keep up with the speed of the internet." But once Iconiq looked at the product and did its due diligence with customers, the investor became a believer, he said. "They've turned a 'human problem' into a 'software problem.' Seeing AI take down digital frauds in real-time is a game-changer for brand safety," he said. Outtake names among its customers OpenAI, Pershing Square, AppLovin, and federal agencies. OpenAI even profiled the company in July, 2025 as an example of an agentic startup built on its reasoning models. The company says it has seen major growth all around, with annual recurring revenue increasing sixfold year-over-year and its customer base growing more than tenfold. Last year alone, Outtake says, its systems scanned 20 million potential cyberattacks.

Ex-Palantir engineer raises $40 million for cyber startup Outtake, with backing from Microsoft CEO Nadella

Alex Dhillon, CEO and founder of Outtake Courtesy: Abiola Familusi Alex Dhillon spent almost five years at Palantir before leaving to build cybersecurity startup Outtake. Now his former boss is helping fuel his new company's growth, alongside a roster of investors that includes Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Outtake, which counts OpenAI and Bill Ackman's Pershing Square among its customers, has just raised a fresh $40 million, the company said Wednesday. The startup, founded in 2023, uses autonomous artificial intelligence agents to help companies detect and quickly remove cyberthreats like phishing, through a variety of applications, including email verification. "We're headed towards this world of always-on security," Dhillon said in an interview. "You need agent tech solutions like Outtake, defending your neighborhood." The funding round was led by venture firm Iconiq, with participation from CRV, S32 and angel investors Nadella as well as Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, Anduril co-founder Trae Stephens, and Ackman. Palantir tech chief Shyam Sankar was another angel investor in the company and contributed to the newest round. Dhillon didn't disclose the valuation, but the 35-person company said that annual recurring revenue has increased about sixfold year over year, and that its systems scanned 20 million potential cyberattacks last year. Outtake also said it has grown enterprise customers more than tenfold year over year. Dhillon said that AI has raised the sophistication and pace of cyberthreats, and that his company is building a "trust layer for the Internet."