Arctic Wolf, a security operations center-as-a-service (SOCaaS) and managed detection and response (MDR) provider, has raised $150 million in a Series F financing round and achieved a $4.3 billion valuation. The news comes after rumors surfaced in June 2021 that Arctic Wolf wanted to raise a new round of venture capital funding at a $4 billion valuation.
With the Series F funding, Arctic Wolf will explore ways to expand its operations and deliver new products, according to a prepared statement. Arctic Wolf also will use the funding to further accelerate its security operations market momentum.
Arctic Wolf Grows in 2020
Arctic Wolf doubled its revenue and headcount in 2020, the company stated. It reported 438 percent year-over-year annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth in large enterprise customers and 3,000 total customers.
In addition, Arctic Wolf is the fastest-growing company at scale in the fastest-growing area of the cybersecurity market, the company said. Some of Arctic Wolf's milestones over the past few years include:
- 100 percent growth in year-over-year ARR in each of the last seven years
- 148 percent increase in security events being processed (the company currently processes 1.2 trillion security events per week)
- Nearly 60 percent of its customers using three or more of its security operations solutions
Furthermore, Arctic Wolf in June 2021 expanded its channel-focused security services and operations to EMEA and incorporated Authorized and Wolf Pack tiers into its channel partner program. Arctic Wolf also launched its Managed Security Awareness training solution in May 2021.
A Closer Look at Arctic Wolf
Arctic Wolf provides the Arctic Wolf Platform and Concierge Security experts to help organizations improve their security operations. The company ensures organizations can leverage its platform and experts to access threat telemetry from endpoint, network and cloud sources and find ways to guard against cyberattacks.
Meanwhile, Arctic Wolf has 650 global partners and over 40,000 trained sellers, the company noted. Arctic Wolf also has onboarded approximately 400 new employees in the last 12 months and plans to add 500 new roles in the coming year.
Potential Arctic Wolf Competition, MSP Alternatives
The big question: Can Arctic Wolf set a SOCaaS standard for thousands of channel partners worldwide? Many of those partners, including small MSPs, don't have the talent or financial resources to build and fully staff their own security operations centers (SOCs).
With that opportunity in mind, some MSP software platform providers have been acquiring their way into the SOCaaS market. Examples include:
- Barracuda Networks acquiring Skout Cybersecurity;
- ConnectWise acquiring Perch and Stratozen;
- Kaseya acquiring RocketCyber -- though that was a small tuck-in deal, and Kaseya has been busy recovering from a REvil Ransomware cyberattack against VSA software in July 2021.
Venture-backed startups are also in the market. For instance, Huntress raised $40 million in Series B funding in May 2021, and the company has a pure-play cybersecurity strategy that engages MSPs.
Still, Arctic Wolf also has a pure-play channel strategy and the company's $4.3 billion valuation suggests growing business momentum.
Additional insights from Joe Panettieri.
