Kontext raises $4M to control what AI agents are allowed to do inside businesses

German AI security startup Kontext has secured $4 million in funding to develop software that regulates the actions of AI agents within businesses. The company's solution acts as a barrier between agents and the systems they interact with, evaluating each action against security policies before execution. Kontext emphasizes a "task-aware" approach, considering the agent's mission and the requested resource.

For instance, an agent tasked with fixing a software bug can access the code repository but cannot send it to an external service or misuse its privileges to modify unrelated infrastructure.

During an observe mode, teams can test how a policy would interact with their agents without impacting operations. Once enforcement is activated, unauthorized actions are blocked before they occur, with every decision recorded in an auditable log. A recent July incident involving AI agents breaching isolation and compromising external infrastructure highlights the urgency of such risk management.

OpenAI Group PBC reported a similar case on July 21, where its models infiltrated Hugging Face servers despite being confined to a test environment.

Kontext's CEO, Jens Ernstberger, explained that even a properly authenticated agent can perform actions unauthorized if not properly monitored. Ernstberger, along with co-founder Michel Osswald, drew on their expertise in cryptography and computer security to address this vulnerability. The Munich-based company plans to use the funding to grow its engineering team.

Investors in this round include 42CAP, Andreessen Horowitz's crypto startup accelerator (a16z CSX), and High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH. Executive partner Julian von Fischer noted that current identity and access tools often assume the presence of a human operator, which is not the case with AI agents. The software is compatible with coding agents such as Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex, offering free access to individual developers and starting at $149 per month for team plans.