
总部位于爱沙尼亚的Blackwall公司为托管服务商提供网络流量安全工具,该公司周二表示,已以22亿美元估值融资1亿美元。该公司开发的产品可帮助网站应对机器人流量激增的问题,尤其是AI代理。
Estonia-based Blackwall, which builds web traffic security tools for hosting providers, said on Tuesday that it has raised $100 million at a $2.2 billion valuation. It builds products that helps websites grapple with the skyrocketing volume of bot traffic, especially AI agents.
此轮C轮融资由AVP领投,现有投资者Dawn Capital、MMC Ventures和Tera Ventures也参与其中。Blackwall的执行董事长Roi Carthy向TechCrunch表示,此轮融资使公司估值较2025年上一轮融资提升了4倍。
The Series C was led by AVP, with participation from existing investors Dawn Capital, MMC Ventures and Tera Ventures. Blackwall’s executive chairman, Roi Carthy, told TechCrunch this funding round increased the company’s valuation by 4 times since its previous fundraise in 2025.
近年来,Cloudflare、Akamai、Imperva和Blackwall等网络基础设施公司发现自己正处于一个日益重要但充满挑战的领域:它们站在前线,正面应对DDoS攻击、无差别爬取、僵尸网络农场、恶意请求,如今甚至还要应对失控的AI代理群。但这也为帮助托管服务商和网站处理所有潜在不良流量提供了赚取丰厚利润的机会。
Over the past few years, web infrastructure companies like Cloudflare, Akamai, Imperva and Blackwall have found themselves in an increasingly valuable but difficult space: They’re on the frontlines, dealing with DDoS attacks, indiscriminate scraping, botnet farms, malicious requests, and these days, even swarms of AI agents going rogue. But it’s also a chance to make a killing by helping hosting providers and websites deal with all the potentially unwanted traffic.
然而,Blackwall并不打算与该领域的巨头直接竞争。该公司不直接向网站销售其平台,而是采用“渠道”方式,与网络托管、托管服务和云服务提供商合作,了解其需求,然后交付一套可供其定制的工具包。这些提供商随后可以在自有品牌下向其客户提供Blackwall的安全工具,并保持对该关系的控制权。
Blackwall, however, isn’t interested in competing with the bigwigs in its space. Instead of selling its platform directly to websites, the company uses a “channel” approach, working with web hosting, managed service and cloud providers to understand their needs, and then handing over a bundle of tools which they can customize. Those providers can then offer Blackwall’s security tools to their own clients under their own branding and retain control of that relationship.
双方均可从中获利。Blackwall联合创始人兼首席执行官Nikita Rozenberg向TechCrunch表示,托管公司可以根据其希望向最终客户提供的服务,自由组合安全组件来构建自身解决方案,自行定价,并与Blackwall分享收入。该公司最初会向客户提供一个免费层级,展示其网络所面临的流量和威胁,但对任何防护或应对威胁的工具收取费用。
There’s money in it for both sides. Co-founder and CEO Nikita Rozenberg told TechCrunch that hosting companies can mix and match security components to build their own solution according to what they want to provide to their end customers, set the prices, and share a cut of the revenue with Blackwall. The company initially gives its customers a free tier showing the traffic and threats hitting their network, but charges for any protection or tools to address the threats.
除了提供威胁情报、证书管理、DDoS防护和流量路由等服务之外,Blackwall 还会检查客户的网络流量,以区分真实访客和合法的 AI 代理与恶意机器人、入侵者和干扰性流量。Rozenberg 表示,公司使用数字指纹识别等技术来识别发送请求的软件 — 例如 Microsoft Office 或 Codex — 以过滤掉机器人。此外,公司还在客户端点使用自己的 AI 模型来分析进入的请求的意图和行为,以区分由人发送的真实请求所触发的代理与恶意机器人。
In addition to providing services like threat intelligence, certificate management, DDoS protection and traffic routing, Blackwall examines its customers’ web traffic to differentiate actual visitors and legit AI agents from malicious bots, intruders, and disruptive traffic. Rozenberg said the company uses techniques like digital fingerprinting to identify the software sending a request — for example, Microsoft Office or Codex — to filter out bots. In addition, the company uses its own AI models at customers’ endpoints to analyze the intent and behavior of the requests coming in to differentiate agents sent by a person for a real request versus a malicious bot.
在未来几年,Rozenberg 认为,随着 AI 代理开始代表用户与网站进行交互和交易,一个巨大的机遇正在浮现。这最终将需要系统来管理哪些代理可以获得访问权限、在什么条件下访问,以及它们如何被授权进行支付。
In the coming years, Rozenberg sees a big opportunity emerging as AI agents begin interacting and transacting with websites on behalf of their users. This should eventually require systems to manage which agents get access, and on what terms, and how they are authorized to make payments.
Blackwall 并不是唯一看准这一机遇的公司。Cloudflare 的 AI Crawl Control 允许网站所有者允许或阻止单个 AI 爬虫,并且还提供向其收取访问费用的选项。但 Rozenberg 认为,Blackwall 的优势在于让托管服务提供商能够自行提供此类流量管理服务,而不是将客户关系交给另一家安全服务提供商。
Blackwall isn’t alone in eyeing that opportunity. Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control lets website owners allow or block individual AI crawlers, and there’s also an option to charge them for access. But Rozenberg argues that Blackwall’s advantage lies in letting hosting providers offer such traffic management services themselves instead of handing the customer relationship to another security provider.
Blackwall 计划利用这笔资金在北美、欧洲、亚太和中东地区扩展业务,并为托管、云和托管服务提供商开发更多安全工具。
Blackwall plans to use the funding to expand its operations across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, and develop more security tooling for hosting, cloud and managed service providers.