F5, the application delivery and security company, announced on 22 June 2026 that it had acquired SurePath AI, a Denver startup whose software finds out which AI tools and agents employees are using inside a company, including ones IT never approved. F5 announced the deal the same day it launched the F5 AI Security Platform, a product for chief information security officers that SurePath's technology now feeds.
F5 did not disclose terms at the time, and press coverage reported the price as undisclosed. F5's quarterly report for the period ended 30 June 2026, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in August, stated that the deal closed on 15 June 2026 for $50.1 million and that SurePath became a wholly owned F5 subsidiary at closing. F5 recorded $39.1 million of goodwill on the purchase.
SurePath's technology is being integrated into the F5 AI Security Platform.
What SurePath AI built
F5 described SurePath as a provider of network-based AI discovery, intent classification and shadow AI detection. Its software watches network traffic rather than plugging into individual applications. It deploys through network redirects and out-of-band analysis, so companies do not need to change how their existing applications are built.
From that traffic, SurePath detects unauthorised AI activity, classifies what each AI workflow is trying to do, and traces the tool calls agents make and their connections to MCP servers, the interfaces that let AI agents use outside tools and data. When it raised its seed round in 2024, the company described its goal as helping enterprises adopt generative AI securely by detecting usage, reducing risks and controlling AI access to company data.
“Most AI security today is a wrapper around a chatbot. That is not security.”
Why F5 is buying
F5 built the new platform around four parts: AI governance, AI discovery, AI security testing and AI runtime protection, plus an observability layer that keeps an audit trail of AI interactions. SurePath supplies the discovery part. What it finds is passed to F5 AI Red Team, which tests for risks before systems go live, and to F5 AI Guardrails, which blocks threats such as prompt injection and data leakage while AI systems run.
F5 said the platform tests AI systems against more than 140,000 attack patterns and can be run on premises, in air-gapped networks, in private or public clouds, or in hybrid setups. The company cited its own 2026 State of Application Strategy Report, in which 88% of organisations reported at least one AI-related operational or security challenge.
Kunal Anand, F5's chief product officer, said that "most AI security today is a wrapper around a chatbot" and argued that enterprises run AI "inside regulated networks, behind APIs, and across agents that authenticate and act on their own."
The funding
SurePath announced a $5.2 million seed round in November 2024. Uncork Capital led it, with significant participation from Operator Collective, bringing the company's total funding to $6.3 million. At the time it sold a software-as-a-service product for governing how staff use public AI tools, private models and access to sensitive data under one set of rules.
F5 did not say how many SurePath employees joined it or name the startup's founders in its announcement.
F5's filing said the assets and liabilities that came with SurePath were not material and that the purchase did not have a material effect on its operating results. A summary of the filing's cash flow data lists $47.6 million in cash used to acquire SurePath AI Inc. in the nine months to 30 June 2026; the gap with the $50.1 million figure was not explained.
F5's run of AI security deals
SurePath is the second AI security company F5 has bought in under a year. Its 10-Q shows that on 26 September 2025 F5 closed the purchase of CalypsoAI, an enterprise AI security provider, for $145.2 million in cash. CalypsoAI's real-time threat defence and red-teaming tools were also folded into the F5 AI Security Platform.
Together the two deals give F5 tools for finding AI use, testing AI systems and protecting them while they run, sold alongside its established application delivery and API security products.
