总部位于旧金山的初创公司 Upwind 利用人工智能保护云基础设施安全，已完成 4 亿美元的 C 轮融资，估值达 38 亿美元。本轮融资由 Bessemer Ventures 领投，现有投资方 Greylock Partners 和 Craft Ventures 跟投。
Upwind, a San Francisco startup that uses AI to secure cloud infrastructure, has raised a $400 million Series C round at a $3.8 billion valuation led by Bessemer Ventures, with participation from existing backers including Greylock Partners and Craft Ventures.
此轮融资距离 Upwind 上一轮 2.5 亿美元融资（当时估值 15 亿美元）仅过去九个月。
The round comes nine months after Upwind closed its previous $250 million financing at a $1.5 billion valuation.
据一位知情人士透露，这笔历时数月的新融资曾因 Datadog 试图收购该公司而差点告吹。Datadog 是一家上市公司，销售用于监控软件运行状况的工具，即可观测性工具。该知情人士称，Datadog 并未在风投确定的 38 亿美元估值基础上给出溢价，因此 Upwind 决定保持独立。
The fresh funding, which has been in the works for months, nearly fell apart after Datadog attempted to buy the company, according to a person familiar with Upwind. Datadog is a publicly traded company that sells tools for monitoring how software runs, known as observability. It didn’t offer a premium above the $3.8 billion valuation set by venture capital investors, the person said, so Upwind decided to stay independent.
成立四年的 Upwind 在人工智能驱动的网络安全威胁日益增加的背景下实现了快速增长。据一位熟悉 Upwind 财务状况的人士透露，该公司每季度新增的年度经常性收入（ARR）在 2000 万至 3000 万美元之间，预计年底 ARR 将达到约 9000 万美元。这意味着风投和 Datadog 给予该初创公司的估值超过其预测 ARR 的 40 倍，这是软件公司定价的常用标尺。
Four-year-old Upwind has grown rapidly amid rising AI-driven cybersecurity threats. The startup has been adding $20 million to $30 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR) each quarter and is projected to end the year at roughly $90 million, according to a person familiar with Upwind’s financials. That means that VCs and Datadog valued the startup at more than 40 times its forecast ARR, a common yardstick for pricing software companies.
这一高倍数仍低于投资者今年早些时候给另一家快速增长的网络安全初创公司 Cyera 的 80 倍 ARR 估值。根据《TechCrunch》今年早些时候的报道，Cyera 的估值同样达到了 80 倍 ARR。
The high multiple is still lower than the 80 times ARR that investors valued Cyera, another fast-growing cybersecurity startup, earlier this year. The high multiple is also well below the 80x ARR fetched by Cyera, another fast-growing cybersecurity startup, according to TechCrunch reporting from earlier this year.
网络安全有望成为继 AI 编程工具和客户支持之后，企业愿意为之付费的第三大 AI 软件浪潮，Theory Ventures 普通合伙人 Tomasz Tunguz 最近在其广受关注的博客中写道。通过拒绝一项收购要约，Upwind 显然认为该公司最终价值将超过 Datadog 准备支付的 38 亿美元。然而，考虑到近年来极少有网络安全公司上市，最终出售仍是这家初创公司最可能的结局。据一位知情人士透露，Upwind 仍持续吸引收购兴趣。
Cybersecurity is poised to be the third big wave of AI software that companies will pay for after AI coding tools and customer support, Theory Ventures general partner Tomasz Tunguz recently wrote in his widely- By walking away from an acquisition offer, Upwind clearly believes that the company will be ultimately worth more than $3.8 billion that Datadog was ready to pay for it. However, given how few cybersecurity companies have gone public in recent years, an eventual sale remains the most likely outcome for the startup. Upwind continues to draw acquisition interest, according to a person familiar with the company.
该初创公司由 Amiram Shachar 创立，他此前曾将云支出管理初创公司 Spot.io 以 4.5 亿美元出售给 NetApp。Upwind 称其应对威胁的方法为“运行时”安全，意即它能实时针对活动服务中的攻击和漏洞发出警报并进行修复。
The startup was founded by Amiram Shachar, who sold his previous company, the cloud spend management startup Spot.io, to NetApp for $450 million. Upwind calls its approach to thwarting threats “runtime” security, which means it alerts and remedies attacks and vulnerabilities in active services in real time.
TechCrunch 已向 Upwind 和 Datadog 双方寻求置评。
TechCrunch has reached out to both Upwind and Datadog for comment.