Upwind, which sells software that watches companies' cloud systems for attacks while they run, has raised $400 million in Series C funding at a $3.8 billion valuation. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, Upwind announced on October 28, with Canapi Ventures joining as a new investor alongside existing backers including Greylock Partners, Cyberstarts, Craft Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and TCV.
The price is about 2.5 times the $1.5 billion valuation Upwind set in its Series B nine months earlier, and the round is $100 million larger than the $300 million round Globes reported in September. The announcement came six days after The Information reported that Datadog had offered nearly $4 billion for Upwind, a report that CTech disputed the same day.
What Upwind sells
Upwind's platform combines what is running in a customer's cloud, including workloads, APIs and AI agents, to show security, development and DevOps teams which exposures an attacker can actually reach, how to fix them, and when an attack is under way, according to the release. Upwind calls this runtime security. The platform supports AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and AWS customers can open it inside the AWS console and pay through their AWS bill.
Hundreds of organizations use Upwind, the company said, including Siemens, Roku, Carvana, Nubank, Supabase and ClickUp. The platform also includes AI agents that investigate alerts, test whether a reported exposure can really be exploited and carry out fixes, so staff spend less time sorting alerts.
The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2022 by the team behind Spot.io, a cloud infrastructure optimization company that NetApp acquired. Amiram Shachar, Upwind's CEO and co-founder, said in the release that security tools now have to keep up with AI agents:
Security needs to keep pace with environments that AI agents can change at a speed and scale that human teams alone cannot match.Amiram Shachar, CEO and co-founder of Upwind
What the money is for
The funding will pay for product development and a wider sales push, the company said. In a post announcing the round, Shachar wrote that Upwind is building AI sensors for endpoints and scanners for AI agents and skills, and plans to expand into areas around identity, data and AI.
Shachar also wrote that the round takes Upwind's total funding past $800 million.
Did Datadog offer to buy Upwind?
Upwind's announcement does not mention Datadog (Nasdaq: DDOG), which sells software for monitoring and securing applications and infrastructure, and the published accounts of an offer do not agree.
The Information reported on October 22, citing a person with direct knowledge of the talks, that Datadog had offered nearly $4 billion for Upwind, and that Upwind had fielded other takeover attempts.
CTech reported the same day that it had learned “the reported offer was not made.”
Globes reported on October 28 that Datadog had courted Upwind for months with an offer close to the $3.8 billion valuation, and that the new round means Upwind turned it down.
TechCrunch reported later that day, citing a person familiar with Upwind, that Datadog tried to buy the company but would not pay more than the $3.8 billion valuation, and that Upwind chose to remain independent. TechCrunch said it had asked both companies for comment.
Datadog has been linked to Upwind before. Globes reported in July 2025, citing sources close to the matter, that the two were in advanced talks over a deal worth as much as $1 billion, which did not happen.
The numbers
Upwind's announced rounds add up to $830 million: $430 million through the Series B, by the company's count in January, plus the new $400 million. The real total may be a little higher. Upwind's January release already named Salesforce Ventures among the Series B investors, but in March the company said the firm was joining the round, and CTech estimated that investment at tens of millions of dollars, at a $1.6 billion valuation.
The valuation rose about 2.5 times in the 275 days between the Series B and the Series C.
Round (announced) | Amount ($M) | Led by | Valuation ($B) |
|---|---|---|---|
Seed (2022) | 30 | Greylock, co-lead | Not disclosed |
Unnamed (Sep 2023) | 50 | Greylock, Cyberstarts, Leaders Fund | Not disclosed |
Series A (Dec 2024) | 100 | Craft Ventures | Not disclosed |
Series B (Jan 2026) | 250 | Bessemer | 1.5 |
Series C (Oct 2026) | 400 | Bessemer | 3.8 |
Source: Upwind's announcements of its 2023 round and its Series A, its Series B and Series C releases, and Globes for the leads of the 2023 round.
Upwind has not disclosed revenue. The company said revenue has quadrupled in 2026, and its January release said revenue grew 900% in the year before. Outside estimates differ. The Information reported annual recurring revenue (ARR) above $50 million, up from about $20 million at the end of 2025, according to CTech. Globes put 2026 ARR at $80 million or more. TechCrunch, citing a person familiar with Upwind's financials, said ARR is forecast to reach roughly $90 million by the end of the year, which it calculated puts the valuation at more than 40 times forecast ARR.
Who Upwind competes with
Shachar wrote in his post that Upwind is up against some of the biggest companies there are. Its rivals include Wiz, a cloud and AI security platform that Google agreed in March 2025 to buy for $32 billion and took over on March 11, 2026. Wiz is now part of Google Cloud and, Google said, still works across AWS, Azure and Oracle Cloud.
Datadog, the reported bidder, is also a rival: it sells its own cloud security products, including cloud security posture management, vulnerability management and cloud workload protection.
What the round says about cloud security
Bessemer has led both of Upwind's last two rounds, and both came after Google agreed to buy Wiz. When Bessemer led the Series B in January, its partner Elliott Robinson said in the release:
Cloud security is already one of the largest and fastest growing segments in cybersecurity…Elliott Robinson, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, January 2026
TechCrunch reported, citing a person familiar with Upwind, that would-be buyers are still interested in the company, and wrote that with so few cybersecurity IPOs in recent years, a sale is its likeliest exit. Datadog is due to report third-quarter results on November 4.
