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.”

Iconiq general partner Murali Joshi, who is joining Outtake’s board, said the company’s growth rate, strong customer feedback and market opportunity are among the reasons the firm invested.

“What they’ve built, from a product perspective, is so fundamentally differentiated relative to everything else that’s been on the market,” Joshi told CNBC.

Outtake’s technology is used by AppLovin, federal agencies, luxury retail brands and popular AI labs. Dhillon, who worked on Palantir’s AI platforms, said the company plans to use some of the funding to grow its go-to-market teams, including engineering and product.

“We need agents manning the walls, because we’re getting hammered every day,” Dhillon said. “That’s, frankly, what’s both thrilling and frightening about our space, and in that lie opportunity.”

Outtake previously raised $16.5 million in a Series A funding round led by CRV in April, and $3.5 million in a seed round.

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