Huntress

Former US government/NSA cyber operators Kyle Hanslovan, Chris Bisnett and John Ferrell founded Huntress in 2015 after repeatedly finding latent footholds and persistence mechanisms that conventional antivirus missed in smaller organizations. They bootstrapped the first years, scanning systems and validating detections manually, then built a partner-first managed detection and response platform for managed service providers (MSPs) and internal IT teams. The current 'Agentic Security Platform' combines Managed EDR, Identity Threat Detection and Response for Microsoft 365, managed SIEM, security awareness training, posture management and a 24/7 analyst-led SOC that filters alerts and takes remediation actions. Huntress acquired Level Effect's Recon EDR assets in 2021 and Curricula in 2022, turning the latter's story-driven training into managed SAT. Its primary pricing is transparent per managed asset for direct buyers and volume/partner priced for MSPs. Huntress reported 268,000+ protected businesses on its 2026 pricing page and crossed $100m ARR in 2025. Financing is often misstated: first-party releases show $118m cumulative equity after a $60m Series C, then $150m Series D at $1.55b, or $268m equity; a separate $40m CIBC facility brings total capital to about $308m. The founders remain operators, with Hanslovan CEO, Bisnett CTO and Ferrell in strategic leadership. Key risks are privileged endpoint/identity access, incident-response liability, rapidly evolving attacker behavior, MSP concentration/channel conflict and competitive pressure from platform security vendors.

Founding story

The founders used offensive-cyber and incident-response experience to hunt persistent attacker footholds in SMB environments that expensive enterprise tools and signature antivirus routinely missed.

Business model

Recurring managed-security software and SOC service sold per protected endpoint, identity, data source or learner, with an MSP/MSSP channel core and direct internal-IT offering.

Monthly/annual subscriptions by asset count; partner discounts and commitments; no separate SOC tier/add-on for core products. Services, training and enterprise terms can be custom.

Traction

Huntress says it passed $100m ARR in 2025 and its current pricing page says 268k+ protected businesses. It had 100k+ customers in June 2024. Exact endpoints, partners, gross retention and profitability remain private.

Latest developments

Expanded to managed SIEM and endpoint/identity posture management, passed $100m ARR, became a CVE Numbering Authority and brands the integrated suite as an AI-centric/agentic managed security platform.