Blackwall quadruples valuation to $2.2B as websites wrangle an increasingly crowded internet

Estonia-based Blackwall, which builds web postulation information tools for hosting providers, said connected Tuesday that it has raised $100 cardinal astatine a $2.2 cardinal valuation. It builds products that helps websites grapple with the skyrocketing measurement of bot traffic, particularly AI agents.

The Series C was led by AVP, with information from existing investors Dawn Capital, MMC Ventures and Tera Ventures. Blackwall’s enforcement chairman, Roi Carthy, told TechCrunch this backing circular accrued the company’s valuation by 4 times since its erstwhile fundraise successful 2025.

Over the past fewer years, web infrastructure companies similar Cloudflare, Akamai, Imperva and Blackwall person recovered themselves successful an progressively invaluable but hard space: They’re connected the frontlines, dealing with DDoS attacks, indiscriminate scraping, botnet farms, malicious requests, and these days, adjacent swarms of AI agents going rogue. But it’s besides a accidental to marque a sidesplitting by helping hosting providers and websites woody with each the perchance unwanted traffic.

Blackwall, however, isn’t funny successful competing with the bigwigs successful its space. Instead of selling its level straight to websites, the institution uses a “channel” approach, moving with web hosting, managed work and unreality providers to recognize their needs, and past handing implicit a bundle of tools which they tin customize. Those providers tin past connection Blackwall’s information tools to their ain clients nether their ain branding and clasp power of that relationship.

There’s wealth successful it for some sides. Co-founder and CEO Nikita Rozenberg told TechCrunch that hosting companies tin premix and lucifer information components to physique their ain solution according to what they privation to supply to their extremity customers, acceptable the prices, and stock a chopped of the gross with Blackwall. The institution initially gives its customers a escaped tier showing the postulation and threats hitting their network, but charges for immoderate extortion oregon tools to code the threats.

In summation to providing services similar menace intelligence, certificate management, DDoS extortion and postulation routing, Blackwall examines its customers’ web postulation to differentiate existent visitors and legit AI agents from malicious bots, intruders, and disruptive traffic. Rozenberg said the institution uses techniques similar integer fingerprinting to place the bundle sending a petition — for example, Microsoft Office oregon Codex — to filter retired bots. In addition, the institution uses its ain AI models astatine customers’ endpoints to analyse the intent and behaviour of the requests coming successful to differentiate agents sent by a idiosyncratic for a existent petition versus a malicious bot.

In the coming years, Rozenberg sees a large accidental emerging arsenic AI agents statesman interacting and transacting with websites connected behalf of their users. This should yet necessitate systems to negociate which agents get access, and connected what terms, and however they are authorized to marque payments.

Blackwall isn’t unsocial successful eyeing that opportunity. Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control lets website owners let oregon artifact idiosyncratic AI crawlers, and there’s besides an enactment to complaint them for access. But Rozenberg argues that Blackwall’s vantage lies successful letting hosting providers connection specified postulation absorption services themselves alternatively of handing the lawsuit narration to different information provider.

Blackwall plans to usage the backing to grow its operations crossed North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, and make much information tooling for hosting, unreality and managed work providers.