Expel
Mclean, US · Founded 2016 · 476 employees on LinkedIn · 12 known investors
Find your way into Expel
535 people in our graph share verified history with the Expel team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Shardul Shahunlockedknows Dave Merkel · together at Expel (overlapped)
knows the team · via University of Colorado Boulder
×2knows the team · via AOL LLC
×4knows the team · via America Online, Inc.
knows the team · via University of Virginia
knows the team · via Expel
Expel provides managed detection and response (MDR) services for cybersecurity threats, helping organizations detect and respond to security incidents. The company serves enterprise customers seeking external security expertise and incident response capabilities.
Founders & leadership
Expel was founded in 2016 by Yanek Korff and Justin Bajko.
YK
Yanek Korffin𝕏Co-Founder & Chief Operating OfficerHe has held security operations and infrastructure management roles, with experience spanning threat detection, security operations, and business leadership through economic cycles and growth phases.
JB
Justin Bajkoin𝕏Co-Founder & Chief Strategy OfficerBefore co-founding Expel in 2016, Bajko was managing director of MCIRT operations at Mandiant and spent six years at Symantec as a senior manager in global security analysis. He began his career in network and systems administration at MiniFibers and Clinical Trial Management Services.
DM
Dave Merkelin𝕏Co-founder & Chief Executive OfficerMerkel previously served as chief technology officer at FireEye and at Mandiant, where he also led products and threat management services, and spent eight years at America Online in technical security and operations security investigations roles. He co-founded Expel in 2016.
Board
MY
Investors · 12
Battery VenturesBoston · $500K – $100M
Burda Principal InvestmentsMunich
CapitalGSan Francisco · $50M – $100M
Cisco InvestmentsSan Jose
GreycroftNew York · $100K – $5M
Index VenturesSan Francisco · $540K – $10.8M
LightbankChicago · $500K – $5M
March Capital PartnersSanta Monica
New Enterprise Associates (NEA)Menlo Park · $200K – $40M
Paladin Capital GroupWashington · $100K – $5M
Scale Venture PartnersSan Francisco · $5M – $25M
Also in the syndicate · 1
March Capital
Reported raises · per SEC filings
Form D private placements$284.6M disclosed across 6 rounds · 2016–2022
▶$30MraisedNov 2022 · 10 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
▶$30MraisedNov 2022 · 10 investors · Other Technology
Rule 506(b)Officers, directors & promoters on the filing
- Ariel TseitlinDirector
- David MerkelExecutive Officer, Director
- Peter KatzExecutive Officer
- Shardul ShahDirector
- Yanek KorffExecutive Officer, Director
- Gene FrantzDirector
- Johanna FlowerDirector
- Mourad YesayanDirector
- Offering amount
- $30M
- Amount sold
- $30M
- First sale
- Sep 2022
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$141.3MraisedFeb 2022 · 10 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
▶$141.3MraisedFeb 2022 · 10 investors · Other Technology
Rule 506(b)Officers, directors & promoters on the filing
- Ariel TseitlinDirector
- Peter KatzExecutive Officer
- Shardul ShahDirector
- Johanna FlowerDirector
- Mourad YesayanDirector
- David MerkelExecutive Officer, Director
- Yanek KorffExecutive Officer, Director
- Gene FrantzDirector
- Offering amount
- $141.3M
- Amount sold
- $141.3M
- First sale
- Sep 2021
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$45.8MraisedMay 2020 · 9 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
▶$45.8MraisedMay 2020 · 9 investors · Other Technology
Rule 506(b)Officers, directors & promoters on the filing
- Peter KatzExecutive Officer
- Gene FrantzDirector
- David MerkelExecutive Officer, Director
- Ariel TseitlinDirector
- Mourad YesayanDirector
- Yanek KorffExecutive Officer, Director
- Shardul ShahDirector
- Offering amount
- $50M
- Amount sold
- $45.8M
- First sale
- May 2020
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2016
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$40MraisedJul 2019 · 11 investors · OtherRule 506(b)
▶$40MraisedJul 2019 · 11 investors · Other
Rule 506(b)Officers, directors & promoters on the filing
- Dave MerkelExecutive Officer, Director
- Yanek KorffExecutive Officer, Director
- Justin BajkoExecutive Officer
- Mourad YesayanDirector
- Ariel TseitlinDirector
- Shardul ShahDirector
- Offering amount
- $40M
- Amount sold
- $40M
- First sale
- Jun 2019
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2016
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$20MraisedApr 2018 · 10 investors · OtherRule 506(b)
▶$20MraisedApr 2018 · 10 investors · Other
Rule 506(b)Officers, directors & promoters on the filing
- Justin BajkoExecutive Officer
- Ariel TseitlinDirector
- Yanek KorffExecutive Officer, Director
- Mourad YesayanDirector
- David MerkelExecutive Officer, Director
- Offering amount
- $20M
- Amount sold
- $20M
- First sale
- Mar 2018
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2016
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$7.5MraisedSep 2016 · 15 investors · OtherRule 506(b)
▶$7.5MraisedSep 2016 · 15 investors · Other
Rule 506(b)Officers, directors & promoters on the filing
- Yanek KorffExecutive Officer, Director
- David MerkelExecutive Officer, Director
- Justin BajkoExecutive Officer, Director
- Mourad YesayanDirector
- Offering amount
- $7.5M
- Amount sold
- $7.5M
- Proceeds to insiders
- $500K
- First sale
- Aug 2016
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2016
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
Source: SEC EDGAR Form D. Amounts as filed; amended filings shown once at their latest values.
Competitors · 10
by search overlap
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Netezza394 shared keywordsIBM is a global technology company whose business spans enterprise software (including Red Hat, HashiCorp, and Confluent), IT infrastructure such as mainframes, servers, and storage, and IT consulting services. The company is also investing heavily in quantum computing and AI-based enterprise offerings, including its Lightwell open-source software security clearinghouse and the Anderon quantum wafer foundry.
Sentinel One373 shared keywordsSentinelOne provides an AI-powered cybersecurity platform for enterprises that integrates endpoint protection, threat detection, and incident response capabilities. The company serves large enterprises, including many Fortune 500 organizations, to protect against cyber threats at scale.
Crowdstrike344 shared keywordsCrowdStrike provides an AI-native cybersecurity platform that unifies endpoint, identity, cloud, SaaS, and AI protection to detect and stop breaches for enterprise organizations. It combines automated response with human-led security operations including managed detection and response, threat hunting, and security services.
Check Point Software315 shared keywordsCheck Point Software Technologies is a cybersecurity company providing security products and solutions. This page is its investor relations section, containing annual reports, SEC filings, financial results, and corporate governance information.
Splunk245 shared keywordsSplunk offers a unified platform for security and observability that ingests and analyzes large-scale data across hybrid cloud environments. Its tools support security operations centers with analytics and automated response, and help teams monitor application and infrastructure performance.
Trend Micro212 shared keywordsTrendAI (Trend Micro) provides enterprise cybersecurity through its TrendAI Vision One platform, which unifies endpoint, network, cloud, and identity security with XDR visibility, threat intelligence, and AI-focused threat protection. It serves enterprise customers across 185 countries, including hybrid cloud, virtualized data center, and modern SOC environments.
Sumo Logic12 shared keywordsSumo Logic provides an AI-powered cloud-native log analytics platform that unifies and analyzes enterprise data for development, security, and operations teams. The platform delivers actionable insights to help teams simplify complexity and accelerate data-driven decision-making.
Vectra11 shared keywordsVectra AI provides an AI-driven security platform that detects, investigates, and stops cyber attacks across hybrid environments including on-premises, multi-cloud, identity, Microsoft 365, and IoT/OT. It offers network detection and response (NDR) and identity threat detection and response capabilities for enterprise security teams.
Postman11 shared keywordsPostman is an API platform that helps developers build, test, and manage APIs throughout their lifecycle. It serves organizations across industries, including 98% of the Fortune 500, and provides tooling for API development, quality assurance, and organizational governance.
Companies competing with Expel for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
Frequently asked questions
- What does Expel do?
- Expel provides managed detection and response (MDR) services for cybersecurity threats, helping organizations detect and respond to security incidents. The company serves enterprise customers seeking external security expertise and incident response capabilities.
- Who founded Expel?
- Expel was founded by Yanek Korff, Justin Bajko in 2016.
- Who are Expel's investors?
- Expel's investors include Battery Ventures, Burda Principal Investments, CapitalG, Cisco Investments, Greycroft, Index Ventures, Lightbank, March Capital Partners and 3 more.
- How much funding has Expel raised?
- Expel has disclosed $284.6M raised across 6 rounds.
- Where is Expel headquartered?
- Expel is headquartered in Mclean, US.