Technology and Scienceupdated 2h ago2 min read
Upwind Security Raises $400 Million Series C at $3.8 Billion Valuation
“DataDog’s $4 billion acquisition offer”
“It didn’t offer a premium above the $3.8 billion valuation set”
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Upwind secured $400 million in a Series C led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The round values the company at $3.8 billion.
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Upwind’s $400M bet
Upwind Security raised a $400 million Series C round at a $3.8 billion valuation, with Bessemer Venture Partners leading the financing and Canapi Ventures participating alongside existing investors. Upwind said the round builds on its previous $250 million financing at a $1.5 billion valuation, and the company framed the growth as a shift toward securing cloud infrastructure and AI systems in real time.
Amiram Shachar, Upwind’s CEO and cofounder, argued that “AI is fundamentally transforming cloud infrastructure architecture, the scope of cyber threats, and the way organizations build and operate software,” tying the funding to the need for security teams to understand how cloud and AI interact. Upwind also described its approach as “runtime” security, using real-time intelligence to help security, development, and DevOps teams identify and prioritize risks rather than relying primarily on periodic scans.
Datadog offer rejected
Upwind rejected Datadog’s acquisition attempt, and TechCrunch said Datadog “didn’t offer a premium above the $3.8 billion valuation set by venture capital investors,” leading Upwind to stay independent. Globes reported that Upwind turned down DataDog’s $4 billion acquisition offer, and it said the offer came close to the $3.8 billion valuation in the current financing round.
TechCrunch said Upwind’s Series C nearly fell apart after Datadog attempted to buy the company, and the company’s decision to walk away became part of the rationale for the new round. Amiram Shachar positioned the company’s thesis around real-time context, telling investors that “Context is key to managing internal and external risks; security teams need to understand how the cloud and AI interact in real time,” as Upwind sought to translate that idea into product and go-to-market expansion.
Runtime sensors and agents
Upwind’s technology description emphasized runtime visibility, and Unite.AI said its runtime sensor uses eBPF to observe activity at the Linux kernel level, including process execution, system calls, network activity, and file access. Unite.AI reported that Upwind Operator installs the sensor as a DaemonSet in Kubernetes deployments, while an independent cluster administrator collects cluster metadata to enrich signals gathered by the sensors.
Unite.AI also described Upwind’s AI strategy as two prongs, including specialized agents that help security teams investigate and address findings, and it listed named roles such as Blue, Red, Green, and Choppy. In the funding announcement, Upwind said its platform combines information about workloads in the cloud, APIs, and AI agents with runtime intelligence, and it framed that context as a way to distinguish a theoretical weakness from an active incident.