Founders: Dmitri Alperovitch, George Kurtz (CEO)
Launched: 2011
Headquarters: Sunnyvale, California
Funding: $281.2 million (PitchBook)
Valuation: $1.1 billion (PitchBook)
Key technologies: Artificial intelligence, machine learning, software-defined security
Disrupting: Cybersecurity, network security
George Kavallines | CNBC
Crowdstrike competes in the increasingly crowded field of cybersecurity by offering customers the ability to detect and prevent never-before-seen attacks. The company's platform, named Falcon, enables it to identify what are called active indicators of attack (IOAs) in order to detect and curtail malicious activity before a breach actually happens. Rather than focus on malware — which the company claims is responsible for only 4 out of every 10 attacks — Crowdstrike looks to identify and stop the adversaries themselves, whether they are professional cybercriminals, nation-state actors or malicious insiders. It then detects their actions at the earliest stage of an attack and prevents them from completing it.
Read More: FULL LIST: 2018 DISRUPTOR 50
Former McAfee executives George Kurtz and Dmitri Alperovitch launched the company in 2011, and it has been growing at a rapid clip, with a nearly 300 percent increase in deployments worldwide in the past year.
Customers include ADP, Shutterstock, Sony and the state of Wyoming, to name a few. Crowdstrike has raised $281 million from investors, such as Accel Partners, Google Capital and Warburg Pincus.
