Arctic Wolf acquires Revelstoke, the cybersecurity automation platform, for unrivalled protection!

Arctic Wolf plans to acquire Revelstoke to strengthen its cyber attack detection and response capabilities

Arctic Wolf, a cybersecurity company that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and equity, today announced its intention to acquire Revelstoke, a company developing a security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) platform, for an undisclosed sum.

Acquisition to improve detection of and response to cyber attacks

In a blog post, Dan Schiappa, Arctic Wolf's chief product officer, said the acquisition would enable Arctic Wolf's platform to detect and respond to cyber attacks "faster" and more "comprehensively" than before. Arctic Wolf's flagship software collects data from a company's endpoints, cloud environments and networks to provide a unified view of potential threats. According to Schiappa, Revelstoke's offerings complement this.

"We are strengthening our detection and response capabilities with large-scale customized response actions, while our customers will benefit directly from the technology without having to purchase new modules," Schiappa wrote on the Arctic Wolf blog. "By incorporating the Revelstoke platform... into [Arctic Wolf], Arctic Wolf will now be able to provide customers with the advanced technology and in-depth security operations expertise needed to make SOAR results essentially turnkey."

Revelstoke team to join Arctic Wolf

It was not immediately clear whether some - or all - of the Revelstoke team would be joining Arctic Wolf. An Arctic Wolf spokesperson later told us that 30 people from Revelstoke would be joining Arctic Wolf and that Bob Kruse, co-founder and CEO of Revelstoke, would be moving to the Arctic Wolf product line sales team.

Revelstoke: a security automation platform

Founded in 2020 and based in San Jose, California, Revelstoke hosted a platform capable of automating a number of security processes through pre-built integrations and a library of response playbooks. The platform included a drag-and-drop playbook builder that enabled customers to configure their own workflows with minimal code, as well as a reporting function that attempted to quantify the business impact of the security team's work.

Revelstoke also maintained what it called a "unified data layer", which enabled it to connect different IT and cybersecurity applications and technologies for automation and orchestration. It also integrated artificial intelligence and large language models a la OpenAI's ChatGPT into its core platform, simplifying the process of creating response playbooks (at least in theory).

A growing company

Prior to the acquisition by Arctic Wolf, Revelstoke had raised $38 million from investors including SYN Ventures, ClearSky Security, Rally Ventures and Crosslink Capital.

For Minnesota-based Arctic Wolf, founded in 2012, Revelstoke is the company's third acquisition following the purchase of RootSecure, a cybersecurity vulnerability assessment toolkit, and Tetra Defense, a provider of ransomware resistance testing. Arctic Wolf, which has more than 2,000 employees, was last valued at $4.3 billion and made Deloitte's list of the 500 fastest-growing companies in 2019 and 2020.

Last year, Arctic Wolf CEO Nick Schneider told the press that the company was planning an IPO somewhere in 2022. But he's backtracked on those comments as the landscape for IPOs - and the cybersecurity industry as a whole - has become more uncertain.

However, Arctic Wolf appears to be in a strong position, with $499 million in venture capital, over 3,000 customers worldwide and estimated annual recurring sales of over $200 million. When the company raised $401 million in debt last October, Schneider declared that part of it would be devoted to mergers and acquisitions - and today, he's making good on that promise.