Egress founders return with $16m to police what AI agents do
Tony Pepper and Neil Larkins sold Egress to KnowBe4 in 2024. Their new London and New York startup, backed by AlbionVC, Evolution Equity and Crane, checks every tool call an agent makes before it runs
- Outerlimit announced its $16m (£12m) pre-seed round on 22 September, with money from AlbionVC, Evolution Equity Partners and Crane Venture Partners.
- Egress Software Technologies was incorporated on 9 October 2007 with Pepper and Larkins as its first directors, according to Companies House.
- KnowBe4 agreed to buy Egress on 24 April 2024 and closed the deal on 9 July 2024, without disclosing the price.
- AlbionVC and FTV Capital were Egress investors before the sale, and AlbionVC is now backing the founders again.
- Outerlimit has offices in London and New York.
Before evaluating any agent-security product, run the discovery step yourself: list the AI agents and tools already running, which systems each can call and whose credentials they use. Replace long-lived shared credentials with scoped ones where possible. Treat vendor claims about enforcement at the point of a tool call as unproven until a pilot on non-production systems shows them working, and ask any early-stage supplier for customers who will take a reference call.
“The demand to deploy agentic AI is unparalleled, but security teams are being asked to sign off on risks they cannot adequately control.”Tony Pepper, chief executive, Outerlimit
Outerlimit, a security startup co-founded by the two men who built Egress, came out of stealth on 22 September with a $16m (£12m) pre-seed round from AlbionVC, Evolution Equity Partners and Crane Venture Partners. The company says it is one of the largest pre-seed rounds in cybersecurity.
The product is an authorization layer for AI agents. Rather than trusting an agent once it has logged in, Outerlimit checks identity, policy and context at the moment the agent calls a tool. Credentials are split into fragments and reassembled only when all three line up. The company calls this extending zero trust to the ‘agent action layer’ and sets out three stages for customers: discover the agents and shadow AI already running, observe what they do, then enforce deterministic controls.
Who is behind it
Tony Pepper, chief executive, and Neil Larkins co-founded Egress in London in 2007 and sold the email-security business to KnowBe4, a Vista Equity Partners company, in 2024. The third co-founder, Dr Peter Vincent, chief technology officer, is a theoretical neuroscientist from University College London’s Sainsbury Wellcome Centre. Angels in the round include Brian Murphy, founder of ReliaQuest, Charles Gorintin, co-founder of Alan, and David Garfield, founder of Garrison.
Fintech Global reported the round on 24 September. Outerlimit says it is working with Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 brands but names none, gives no general availability date and does not say how the money will be spent.
Sources
- Outerlimit, “Outerlimit emerges from stealth to extend Zero Trust to the agent action layer by creating a new paradigm to secure agentic AI”, press release via GlobeNewswire, 22 September 2026. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/09/22/3366244/0/en/outerlimit-emerges-from-stealth-to-extend-zero-trust-to-the-agent-action-layer-by-creating-a-new-paradigm-to-secure-agentic-ai.html
- Fintech Global, “Outerlimit raises $16m as agentic AI outpaces security”, 24 September 2026. https://fintech.global/2026/09/24/outerlimit-raises-16m-as-agentic-ai-outpaces-security/
- Outerlimit, “Outerlimit launch”, company news post, 22 September 2026. https://www.outerlimit.com/company-news/outerlimit-launch
- AlbionVC, “Outerlimit raises $16m in pre-seed funding to build and define a new security architecture for agentic AI”, 22 September 2026. https://albion.vc/spotlight/news/outerlimit-raises-16m-in-pre-seed/
- KnowBe4, “KnowBe4 to Acquire Egress”, press release, 24 April 2024. https://www.knowbe4.com/press/knowbe4-to-acquire-egress
- KnowBe4, “KnowBe4 Completes Acquisition of Egress”, press release, 9 July 2024. https://www.knowbe4.com/press/knowbe4-completes-acquisition-of-egress
- Companies House, “Egress Software Technologies Limited, company 06393598: overview and officers”, accessed 28 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06393598/officers
- Outerlimit, “GTM Partners”, outerlimit.com, accessed 28 September 2026. https://www.outerlimit.com/partners/gtm-partners
- MSSP Alert, “Egress Software Technologies Adds Adaptive Security for Cloud Email”, 18 July 2023. https://www.msspalert.com/news/egress-software-technologies-adds-adaptive-security-for-cloud-email
