Upwind Raises $400 Million Series C at a $3.8 Billion Valuation, Six Years After Its Founder Sold Spot.io for $450 Million

Upwind, a cloud and AI security company based in San Francisco, closed a $400 million Series C at a $3.8 billion valuation on October 28, 2026, as reported by Tech Funding News. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round. Canapi Ventures joined, along with existing investors Cyberstarts, Greylock Partners, Craft Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and Picture Capital.

The Step-Up

Upwind's valuation was $1.5 billion in January, when it raised its Series B with Bessemer leading, and rose to $1.6 billion after a follow-on investment from Salesforce Ventures, according to Tech Funding News. At that point the company had raised $430 million. The new $3.8 billion valuation is about 2.4 times the $1.6 billion level in under a year, by our arithmetic.

A Second Company From the Same Team

Amiram Shachar, Upwind's chief executive, sold his first company, Spot.io, to NetApp for $450 million in 2020. Spot.io grew from his own cloud cost problem: at a previous employer he saw hosting costs balloon after a move to the cloud, and he pitched an army friend, Liran Polak, on software that moves workloads to cheaper spare server capacity. Shachar, Polak, Lavi Ferdman and Tal Zur founded Upwind in 2022, and nearly all of Spot's 60 people joined them. As of January, Upwind had more than 300 employees and offices in the US, UK and Israel.

What Upwind Sells

Upwind monitors cloud software in real time instead of relying on periodic scans. Security teams receive many alerts and struggle to tell which vulnerabilities matter, and Upwind's platform brings cloud workloads, APIs and AI agents into a single view. If an AI agent reaches data it should not, the tools show what was accessed and trace it to the code. The company says hundreds of organisations use it, including Siemens, Roku, Carvana, Nubank, Supabase and ClickUp. It works with AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud and is sold directly through the AWS console.

The Numbers

The company says it quadrupled revenue in 2026. The Information reported that annual recurring revenue rose from about $20 million at the end of 2025 to more than $50 million. At $50 million, the $3.8 billion valuation is about 76 times ARR, as Tech Funding News calculates. These revenue figures are reported and not independently verified.

The Datadog Offer

The Information reported earlier this month that Datadog offered nearly $4 billion for Upwind, and that the company rejected it. If the report is accurate, the offer was only slightly above the $3.8 billion round valuation, which means private investors paid almost the same price a strategic buyer was prepared to pay. Neither company has confirmed the offer in the coverage we reviewed.

The Competition

Wiz is the market leader, and Google completed its $32 billion acquisition of the company. Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike also compete. Dell'Oro expects the market to reach $12.9 billion by 2030, growing nearly 30 percent a year from 2025. Other AI-focused security startups include Armadin, which raised $255.5 million at a valuation above $2.5 billion, and Harmonic Security.

The Risk

The risk is the multiple. A valuation of about 76 times recurring revenue assumes growth continues at a fast pace, and it leaves less room if growth slows or if a larger competitor bundles similar features into products customers already pay for. The company also rejected a possible buyer, so the new investors are betting that standing alone is worth more.

What This Means for Founders

First, repeat founders carry credibility. Shachar's earlier exit and the team that followed him helped Upwind raise quickly. If it is your second company, say what you learned and how your team has already worked together.

Second, a strategic offer is a data point, not only a decision. A reported bid close to your round price shows how the market values you. Think about what you would need to see to say no, and be ready to defend that answer to investors who hold your cap table.

Third, read the multiple. At about 76 times ARR, expectations are high. A rapid rise in post-money valuation makes the next round harder if growth slows, and a down round becomes possible. Keep your dilution and runway in mind, and have your data room ready to explain the numbers.

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