Huntress, widely viewed as a symbol of Maryland’s growing supremacy in cybersecurity, said it has hit $100 million in annualized recurring revenue, or ARR, as the firm, whose backers include JMI Equity and Ron Gula, moves toward an expected initial public offering next year.
The so-called “Centaur” status was first reported by PitchBook, which quoted co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Chris Bisnett as saying the company had experienced 70% annual growth for the past two years.
“We’ve been thinking [an IPO timeline] of 18 to 24 months,” Bisnett told PitchBook. “We’re just trying to get ready so that when the window does open, we’re ready to go.”
SMB Focus
In a press release, the Columbia-based Huntress said it today secures more than 3 million endpoints, protects more than 1 million identities and defends more than 120,000 businesses.
“We’re grateful for the recognition this milestone brings, but the real validation comes from our partners and SMBs who’ve supported our mission all along. They’re under serious pressure as hackers step up their game, stealing credentials from endpoints in minutes and quickly targeting cloud-based SaaS apps,” said co-founder and CEO Kyle Hanslovan.
In a LinkedIn post, Baltimore-based JMI congratulated Huntress on the milestone, saying its rapid growth is a “testament” to it “differentiated, customer-focused product and team.” JMI Equity’s general partner Suken Vakil holds a board seat on Huntress. Vakil is a former Googler who worked on the internet giant’s acquisition of Double Click, besides serving the Chrome team as a product manager.
Lofty Valuation
Forgepoint Capital’s managing director, Ernie Bio, termed Huntress’ progress as “astounding,” as it raised both headcount and annual recurring revenue over 20x over the past four-plus years.
Founded in 2015 by National Security Agency’s cyber operators — Hanslovan, Bisnett and John Ferrell, an alumnus of the University of Maryland, Huntress has positioned itself as the cybersecurity vendor for the 99% — a reference to the large number of small- and medium-sized businesses.
During its Series D funding round in 2023, Huntress’ valuation doubled to more than $1.5 billion, according to PitchBook. The company has raised over $300 million from investors such as JMI Equity, Tenable co-founder Ron Gula’s Gula Ventures, and West Coast venture firms Meritech Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins and Sapphire.
‘IPO An Option’
Last year, Hanslovan, who serves as Huntress’ CEO, told CRN an IPO likely wouldn’t happen until mid-2025 at the earliest, if the fast-growing company does in fact decide to go that route. As he built the startup, Hanslovan has repeatedly asserted that Huntress would keep all options open, including an IPO, while expressing the view that its lofty valuation may preclude a potential acquisition.
Last year, Huntress bought cybersecurity training startup Curricula, of Atlanta, Ga., for $22 million, its second acquisition in about 18 months. Curricula, has built a story-based and gamified platform that combines behavioral science with fun stuff to train people in cybersecurity. Huntress acquired Level Effect in 2021.
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Huntress could potentially be the biggest cybersecurity firm from Maryland after Gula’s Tenable, which went public in 2018 after raising about $300 million in venture funding. Tenable, which Gula led until 2016, was valued at $3 billion on listing.
Investors have been mixed in their response to cybersecurity firms. While some public firms, such as Palo Alto Networks, enjoy high multiples, valuations of some privately held companies, such as Synk and Tanium, have been marked down.
Last week, Mastercard said it was acquiring Recorded Future, a threat intelligence provider, from Insight Partners for $2.7 billion, more than three times the price Insight paid to buy the firm in 2019, PitchBook said.
