Arctic Wolf acquires cybersecurity automation platform Revelstoke
Arctic Wolf, a cybersecurity company that’s raised hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and equity, today announced that it plans to acquire Revelstoke, a company developing a security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) platform, for an undisclosed amount.
In a blog post, Arctic Wolf chief product officer Dan Schiappa said that the acquisition would enable Arctic Wolf’s platform to both detect and respond to cybersecurity attacks “faster” and more “comprehensively” than before. Arctic Wolf’s flagship software ingests data from a company’s endpoints, cloud environments and networks to provide a unified view of potential threats, and Schiappa sees Revelstoke’s offerings as complementary to this.
“We’re advancing our detection and response capabilities with tailored response actions at scale, while our customers will directly reap the benefits of the technology without having to purchase new modules,” Schiappa wrote on Arctic Wolf’s blog. “By incorporating Revelstoke’s platform … into [Arctic Wolf[], Arctic Wolf will be now able to provide customers with the advanced technology and deep security operations expertise needed to make SOAR outcomes essentially turnkey.”
It wasn’t immediately clear whether a portion — or all — of Revelstoke’s team would join Arctic Wolf. An Arctic Wolf spokesperson later told TechCrunch that 30 people from Revelstoke will join Arctic Wolf and that Bob Kruse, Revelstoke’s co-founder and CEO, will transition into Arctic Wolf’s product-line sales team.
Revelstoke, founded in 2020 and based in San Jose, California, hosted a platform that could automate a range of security processes with pre-built integrations and a library of response playbooks. The platform featured a drag-and-drop playbook builder that let customers configure their own workflows with minimal code, plus a reporting capability that attempted to quantify the business impact of a security team’s work.
Revelstoke also maintained what it called a “unified data layer,” which allowed it to connect various IT and cybersecurity apps and technologies together for automation and orchestration purposes. And it integrated AI and large language models à la OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its core platform, which streamlined the process of building response playbooks (at least in theory).
Prior to the Arctic Wolf acquisition, Revelstoke had raised $38 million from investors, including SYN Ventures, ClearSky Security, Rally Ventures and Crosslink Capital.
“Security operations is the next market-changing category with Arctic Wolf leading the charge in delivering an industry-defining cybersecurity platform for businesses of every size,” Kruse said in a canned statement. “The cutting-edge SOAR technology we’ve built at Revelstoke is the ideal complement to the Arctic Wolf portfolio and we’re excited to join the Arctic Wolf team in its mission to end cyber risk and see how our platform makes a difference for thousands of customers worldwide.”
For Minnesota-based Arctic Wolf, founded in 2012, Revelstoke is the company’s third acquisition following its purchase of RootSecure, a cybersecurity vulnerability assessment toolkit, and Tetra Defense, a ransomware stress test vendor. Arctic Wolf, which has over 2,000 employees, was reportedly last valued at $4.3 billion, and made Deloitte’s list of the fastest-growing 500 companies in 2019 and 2020.
Last year, Arctic Wolf’s CEO Nick Schneider was quoted in the press saying that the company planned for an IPO sometime in 2022. But he later walked back those comments as the landscape for IPOs — and the broader cybersecurity industry — entered shakier territory.
Arctic Wolf is from all appearances in a position of strength, however, with $499 million in venture capital, over 3,000 customers worldwide and an estimated over $200 million in annual recurring revenue. When the company raised $401 million in debt last October, Schneider said a portion would be put toward mergers and acquisitions — and today, he made good on that promise.
