Upwind Raises $400M, Rebuffed Datadog Buyout
Original: Upwind raises $400M after walking away from Datadog acquisition offer
Why This Matters
AI-driven cybersecurity is attracting top-tier multiples as enterprise spend accelerates.
Cloud security startup Upwind closed a $400M Series C at a $3.8B valuation led by Bessemer Venture Partners, after rejecting a Datadog acquisition offer that matched—but did not exceed—that same valuation.
San Francisco-based Upwind, which uses AI to secure cloud infrastructure in real time, has raised $400 million in a Series C round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with Greylock Partners and Craft Ventures also participating. The deal values the four-year-old startup at $3.8 billion—more than double its $1.5 billion valuation from a $250 million round just nine months ago.
The raise nearly didn't happen. Datadog, the publicly traded observability software company, moved to acquire Upwind during the fundraising process, but declined to offer a premium above the $3.8 billion VC-set valuation. Upwind walked away and stayed independent. The startup continues to attract acquisition interest from other parties, according to a source familiar with the company.
On the revenue side, Upwind is adding $20–30 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR) each quarter and is on track to close the year around $90 million ARR. That puts the Series C valuation at over 40x forward ARR—a steep multiple, though well below the roughly 80x ARR commanded by rival Cyera in an earlier deal. Upwind's "runtime" security approach detects and remediates threats in active services in real time. The company was founded by Amiram Shachar, who previously sold cloud cost management startup Spot.io to NetApp for $450 million.