CrowdStrike launches $100 million investment vehicle Falcon Fund II for tech innovators

CrowdStrike, the endpoint protection, cloud workload, and identity and data company, has announced the launch of Falcon Fund II, a $100 million investment vehicle in partnership with Accel focused on cross-stage private investments within cybersecurity and relevant adjacent markets.

Five times the size of the initial Falcon Fund, CrowdStrike says the Falcon Fund II represents its commitment to growing the cybersecurity technology ecosystem across adjacent markets as one of the largest strategic venture arms in cybersecurity.

The company says the Falcon Fund II will build on the success of the original Falcon Fund, which made investments in companies like Corelight, Cribl, JumpCloud and Tines in 2021. It says the Falcon Fund II will continue to broaden its ecosystem of meaningful technology partnerships, including new vendors for the CrowdStrike Store.

"Falcon Fund II exemplifies our firm commitment to private company investments that enable us to support technologies and leaders," says CrowdStrike chief executive officer and co-founder, George Kurtz.

"This venture goes beyond our mission to build the best product suite in the market that protects endpoints and cloud workloads, identity and data. Together, with the next generation of market disruptors, we can help shape the future of cybersecurity with a shared goal of protecting critical areas of risk for organisations and making this world a safer place."

Sameer Gandhi, a partner at Accel, says they saw great success with the launch of the initial Falcon Fund. "With Falcon Fund II, we will support the next wave of cybersecurity and technology leaders. Security is a critical ecosystem, and we look forward to the possibilities that one of the largest strategic venture arms in cybersecurity will present."

CrowdStrike was one of the leading stocks in 2020 after its return of over 300%. According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report at the time, 69% of respondents predicted an increase in cybersecurity spending for their organisations in 2022. Gartner estimated that spending for information security would increase to $172 billion in 2022 from $155 billion in 2021. In fiscal Q3 2021, CrowdStrike reported total revenue of $380 million, representing 63% year-over-year growth. Management provided guidance of $1.4 billion in total revenue for the year, which would imply 64% year-over-year growth compared to calendar 2020.

With Falcon Fund II, CrowdStrike aims to:

• Dramatically increase its ability to fund the next generation of emerging vendors.
• Build upon the success of the initial Falcon Fund.
• Form long-term alliances with companies that can benefit from CrowdStrikes expertise and knowledge base.