Twistlock is a technology company.
Twistlock has raised $63.0M across 4 funding rounds.
Twistlock has raised $63.0M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Twistlock has raised $63.0M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Twistlock's investors include Battery Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Ten Eleven Ventures, Moshe Lichtman.
Twistlock was a pioneering technology company that developed the industry's first enterprise suite for container security, addressing risks on hosts and within containerized applications through vulnerability management, compliance enforcement, runtime defense, and threat detection.[1][2][4][5] It served enterprises in sectors like banking/finance, government, healthcare, and IT solutions, enabling secure adoption of container technologies from development to production, with over 300 customers including 20-25% of the Fortune 100 at the time of its 2019 acquisition by Palo Alto Networks for approximately $410 million.[2][3][4] Post-acquisition, Twistlock's technology was integrated into Palo Alto Networks' Prisma Cloud, a comprehensive Cloud Native Security Platform (CNSP) for multi-cloud and hybrid environments.[3][4][7]
The company demonstrated strong growth momentum, expanding rapidly in North America before entering EMEA markets in 2016-2017, achieving 164% revenue growth by 2018, securing nearly 60 new customers, and generating consistent quarterly revenue around £200k through partnerships.[3]
Twistlock was founded in 2015 in Portland, Oregon, by co-founders Ben Bernstein and Dima Stopel, who brought expertise in cybersecurity to tackle emerging risks in containerized environments.[3][4] The idea emerged amid the rise of containers as a fast-growing software development infrastructure, packaging code, configurations, and dependencies to accelerate deployment, but introducing new security vulnerabilities that traditional tools couldn't address effectively.[4] Early traction came from its innovative platform providing precise vulnerability management and runtime protection, leading to adoption by major enterprises; by 2019, it served over 300 customers with significant Fortune 100 penetration, culminating in its high-value acquisition by Palo Alto Networks, after which Bernstein and Stopel joined the acquirer.[3][4]
Twistlock stood out in container security with these key strengths:
Twistlock rode the explosive growth of cloud-native technologies like containers and serverless infrastructure, which enabled faster software delivery but exposed organizations to novel risks such as runtime threats and supply chain vulnerabilities in distributed environments.[4] Its timing was ideal in the mid-2010s as enterprises accelerated cloud migrations, demanding specialized tools beyond legacy security; this positioned Twistlock as a pioneer, authoring standards like NIST SP 800-190 and influencing container security best practices.[2] Market forces like increasing regulatory compliance needs and cyber threats in multi-cloud setups favored its approach, while its acquisition by Palo Alto Networks amplified its impact by embedding container expertise into Prisma Cloud, helping secure modern workloads ecosystem-wide and setting precedents for CNSPs.[3][4][7]
Today, Twistlock lives on as a foundational element of Prisma Cloud within Palo Alto Networks, continuing to evolve with advancements in cloud-native security amid surging AI-driven workloads and zero-trust architectures. Next steps likely involve deeper GenAI security integrations and expanded serverless protections, shaped by trends like automated vulnerability prevention and real-time runtime defense. Its influence will grow by enabling safer scaling of container ecosystems, reinforcing Palo Alto's dominance in CNSPs—proving that early container security innovation remains critical for enterprise cloud journeys.
Twistlock has raised $63.0M across 4 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $33.0M Series C in August 2018.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 1, 2018 | $33.0M Series C | Battery Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Ten Eleven Ventures, Moshe Lichtman | |
| Apr 1, 2017 | $17.0M Series B | Battery Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Ten Eleven Ventures, Moshe Lichtman | |
| Jul 1, 2016 | $10.0M Series A | Battery Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Ten Eleven Ventures, Moshe Lichtman | |
| May 1, 2015 | $3.0M Seed | Battery Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners |