CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

42Crunch vs Escape

42Crunch sells a platform for governing the security of MCP servers, APIs and AI agents at enterprise scale. 42Crunch says it helps enterprises bring AI security under control. 42Crunch describes the job as discovering every MCP server that AI agents expose or consume, securing each one against attack, and assessing compliance with AI regulations and security frameworks. Escape sells an offensive security platform that uses AI agents to discover, test and remediate vulnerabilities in engineering workflows. CISO Tribune files both under API security and Dynamic application security testing. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • 42Crunch
  • Escape
42Crunch vs Escape: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
42Crunch42Crunch sells a platform for governing the security of MCP servers, APIs and AI agents at enterprise scale. 42Crunch says it helps enterprises bring AI security under control. 42Crunch describes the job as discovering every MCP server that AI agents expose or consume, securing each one against attack, and assessing compliance with AI regulations and security frameworks.42crunch.comEscapeEscape sells an offensive security platform that uses AI agents to discover, test and remediate vulnerabilities in engineering workflows.escape.tech
What it sells
  • AI Regulatory Compliance[5]Evaluates every MCP server against regulatory and industry frameworks. Maps each finding to the control it breaches.
  • AI Pentesting[2][4][5][10]Continuous AI-powered pentesting that learns the customer's business and proves exploitability.
Categories
Headquarters
London, United KingdomBiarritz, France[3]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2020[1]
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesPrivately held[4][9][11][12]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • September 23, 202642Crunch announced the general availability of its MCP Security Governance solution.[8]
  • January 19, 202642Crunch announced the availability of API Contract Generator in developer IDEs.[9]
  • March 10, 2026Escape announced an $18 million Series A round led by Balderton Capital, with Uncorrelated Ventures, IRIS and Y Combinator also participating.[8]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 3, 2026[9]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, 42Crunch sells mainly to enterprise security and platform teams that govern MCP servers, APIs and AI agent security at scale. Its pricing is sized to the number of APIs, MCP servers and users in an organization. Individual developers who use its AI coding agent plugins have a separate self-serve pricing option.From its own pages, Escape sells mainly to security teams that want to replace legacy scanners and manual offensive security processes. Escape says its platform can replace manual pentest and bug bounty programs, and legacy DAST. Escape describes cloud and on-prem hybrid deployments so that internal applications can be assessed without giving external consultants or bug hunters access. Its compliance support names frameworks such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, CRA, SOC 2 and ISO 27001.
Last verified
November 9, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • API security is the primary category of both 42Crunch and Escape; both are also filed under Dynamic application security testing.

Where they differ, field by field

  • 42Crunch is also filed under AI model and agent security. Escape is also filed under External attack surface management.
  • 42Crunch lists AI Regulatory Compliance. Escape lists AI Pentesting.
  • 42Crunch is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Escape is headquartered in Biarritz, France.
  • Escape was founded in 2020.
  • Escape is privately held.

How they differ

CISO Tribune files both 42Crunch and Escape under API security as the primary category, and both also appear under dynamic application security testing. 42Crunch is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and Escape is headquartered in Biarritz, France. 42Crunch sells a platform for governing the security of MCP servers, APIs and AI agents at enterprise scale. Escape sells an offensive security platform that uses AI agents to discover, test and remediate vulnerabilities in engineering workflows.

42Crunch describes its work as discovering every MCP server that AI agents expose or consume, securing each one, and assessing compliance with AI regulations and security frameworks. It says the EU AI Act, ISO 42001, NIST AI RMF, CSA AICM and OWASP are tagged automatically on every audit. It also describes a positive-security firewall built from each contract for runtime protection. Escape sells AI Pentesting, which it describes as continuous and able to prove exploitability, with white-box testing available against the customer's source code. Escape also offers DAST, external network pentesting and attack surface management. Customers can deploy a Private Location in their own network to test internal applications. Escape names PCI-DSS, HIPAA, CRA, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 among the frameworks it supports.

On pricing, 42Crunch says it is sized to the number of APIs, MCP servers and users, and it lists a self-serve option for individual developers using its AI coding agent plugins. Escape is privately held and was founded in 2020. On March 10, 2026, Escape announced an $18 million Series A round led by Balderton Capital, with Uncorrelated Ventures, IRIS and Y Combinator also participating. On September 23, 2026, 42Crunch announced general availability of its MCP Security Governance solution.

What it sells: 42Crunch

What AI Regulatory Compliance does[5]
42Crunch continuously evaluates every MCP server against the regulatory and industry frameworks an organization answers to. It maps each finding to the specific control it breaches. The page says compliance posture is computed by the control on every audit and every scan, not assembled from documents afterward. Its headline refers to real-time compliance reporting mapped to five frameworks.

What it sells: Escape

What AI Pentesting does[2][4][5][10]
AI Pentesting delivers reports that auditors and engineers can act on. White-box pentesting is available, so it can run with the customer's source code. Escape converts previous AI pentesting findings into automated regression tests that run on every build with DAST.

Questions about 42Crunch and Escape

What do 42Crunch and Escape sell?
42Crunch sells AI Regulatory Compliance. Escape sells AI Pentesting.
Are 42Crunch and Escape in the same category?
Yes. API security is the primary category of both on CISO Tribune.
Where are 42Crunch and Escape headquartered?
42Crunch is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Escape is headquartered in Biarritz, France.
When were 42Crunch and Escape founded?
Escape was founded in 2020.
Who owns 42Crunch and Escape?
Escape is privately held.
Who are 42Crunch and Escape sold to?
From its own pages, 42Crunch sells mainly to enterprise security and platform teams that govern MCP servers, APIs and AI agent security at scale. From its own pages, Escape sells mainly to security teams that want to replace legacy scanners and manual offensive security processes.
What have 42Crunch and Escape announced recently?
September 23, 2026: 42Crunch announced the general availability of its MCP Security Governance solution. March 10, 2026: Escape announced an $18 million Series A round led by Balderton Capital, with Uncorrelated Ventures, IRIS and Y Combinator also participating.

About 42Crunch

42Crunch sells a platform for governing the security of MCP servers, APIs and AI agents at enterprise scale. 42Crunch says it helps enterprises bring AI security under control. 42Crunch describes the job as discovering every MCP server that AI agents expose or consume, securing each one against attack, and assessing compliance with AI regulations and security frameworks.[4][10]

42Crunch says AI coding agents ship MCP servers faster than any manual inventory process can track. 42Crunch discovers every MCP server across an organization automatically, both sanctioned and shadow alike, audits each one and ranks it by risk. 42Crunch says every request from an AI agent passes through the MCP server before it ever reaches an enterprise system or the API behind it. 42Crunch also says an MCP tool is only as secure as the API it wraps.[4]

42Crunch says its deterministic contract-driven model applies equally to the MCP and API layer. Every MCP server and every API behind it gets a machine-readable contract of its declared surface. In the 42Crunch model, discovery writes the contract, testing measures against it, and runtime enforces it. 42Crunch says the model it uses to secure APIs now extends to the MCP servers AI agents call and expose.[4][6]

On the MCP side, 42Crunch sweeps registries, gateways and repos to surface the shadow servers agents are already calling, then reads each server's advertised tools, resources and prompts and emits a contract. Every finding carries severity, evidence and the fix. 42Crunch fails the build when a server leaves its approved contract, then keeps watching the one in production for new tools, rewritten descriptions and widened permissions.[4]

Tests are generated from the OpenAPI definition and run in the pipeline, covering broken object-level authorization, broken auth, mass assignment and unrestricted resource consumption. All AI generated code is automatically fixed by 42Crunch. For runtime, 42Crunch describes a positive-security firewall assembled from the contract itself, where unknown paths, extra parameters, malformed payloads and over-sharing responses are rejected before they reach the backend.[4]

For compliance, 42Crunch says the EU AI Act, ISO 42001, NIST AI RMF, CSA AICM and OWASP are all tagged automatically on every audit. A security review doubles as compliance evidence without extra work. Each finding arrives already tied to the control it answers, so the audit trail for an AI estate is a by-product of the scan. 42Crunch computes compliance posture control by control on every audit and every scan, not assembled from documents afterward. Each audit and scan checks a server against all applicable frameworks at the same time.[4][5][11]

A server below the threshold does not reach production.[12]

42Crunch is built for enterprise security and platform teams governing MCP servers, APIs and AI agent security at scale. 42Crunch pairs API Audit, Scan and Protection with MCP Contract, Audit, Scan and Protect on one platform, with one set of SQG policies and one CI/CD pattern. Pricing includes a dedicated encrypted tenant, SSO and a dedicated support manager, sized to the number of APIs, MCP servers and users. Individual developers who use the 42Crunch AI coding agent plugins have a self-serve pricing option.[2][3][4][5][6][7][10][12]

42Crunch on the record

Sources

42Crunch full record

  1. [1]42crunch criticalblue announce partnership42Crunch · 42crunch.com · published November 21, 2018 · Tier A
  2. [2]42crunch.com42Crunch · 42crunch.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]42crunch publishes state of api security 202642Crunch · 42crunch.com · published February 11, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]42Crunch — AI Security Platform for MCP42Crunch · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]AI Regulatory Compliance | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Management der MCP-Server-Sicherheitslage | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]About 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]42Crunch Launches MCP Security Governance, Giving Enterprises Detailed AI Exposure Management and Compliance with AI Regulatory Frameworks42Crunch · published September 23, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]42Crunch Launches API Contract Generator in Developer IDEs42Crunch · published January 19, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Pricing | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]KI-Regulierungskonformität | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Management der MCP-Server-Sicherheitslage | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A

Escape full record

  1. [1]Seed fundraising api securityEscape · escape.tech · published June 6, 2023 · Tier A
  2. [2]escape.techEscape · escape.tech · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]TermsEscape · escape.tech · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Escape: AI-Powered Offensive Security PlatformEscape · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Continuous AI Pentesting Actionable for Engineers - EscapeEscape · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Escape Attack Surface ManagementEscape · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Escape - AI-powered DASTEscape · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Escape raises $18M Series A to replace legacy scanners with AI agent-driven discovery, pentesting, and remediationEscape · published March 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Escape Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier C
  10. [10]Platform - Escape DocumentationEscape · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Private Locations - Escape DocumentationEscape · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Internal Network Scanning - Escape DocumentationEscape · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Privacy & Security - Escape DocumentationEscape · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A

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