CrowdStrike to buy Fiddler AI and Dreadnode in deals reported at nearly $500 million

CrowdStrike said it will buy Fiddler AI, which makes observability software for monitoring AI agents inside enterprises, and Dreadnode, which automates security testing for flaws in AI models, apps and agents before they are set live. TechCrunch reported, citing The Wall Street Journal, that the deals are worth about $400 million and $95 million, respectively. The total is nearly $500 million.

The acquisitions expand CrowdStrike's products to more broadly monitor, test and cover AI models and agents, as companies across industries start rolling out AI agents and models wholesale, TechCrunch reported.

What the startups add

Fiddler AI will become part of CrowdStrike's Falcon platform as Falcon Observe, according to TechCrunch. The report said it will help clients evaluate agents before deployment, understand their actions and monitor what they do, then feed that information as telemetry into the broader platform.

Dreadnode will be integrated into Falcon Guardian, CrowdStrike's detection and response product. Its software will feed testing results into Falcon Guardian as security policy recommendations, according to TechCrunch. CrowdStrike has itself been building Falcon Guardian to help companies see and understand what agents are doing on their devices.

Price against funding

Fiddler AI was founded in 2018 and had raised about $99 million, according to PitchBook figures cited by TechCrunch. Dreadnode was founded in 2023 and had raised $14 million.

The reported $400 million price is roughly four times Fiddler AI's venture funding. The $95 million price is nearly seven times Dreadnode's. The combined price is nearly $500 million.

Why CrowdStrike is buying

TechCrunch reported that the deals are happening at a time of significant upheaval in the cybersecurity space, especially as companies' policies and processes lag behind AI adoption within their walls. Teams and individual employees are experimenting with AI tools, automating workflows, vibe-coding custom apps and deploying AI agents, which creates headaches for security teams.

CrowdStrike's products are used widely across enterprises and governments. The company is trying to use that reach to capture a share of a quickly growing market for securing AI agents, TechCrunch reported.

It is not alone. TechCrunch reported that several startups and cybersecurity vendors have raised dozens of millions in funding to solve such issues, mostly based on the conviction that existing security software is not enough to monitor and control AI tools, connectors or usage.

The deals add monitoring and pre-deployment testing to CrowdStrike's existing agent controls. For customers deploying agents that can act on devices, the acquisitions give CrowdStrike more ways to show what those agents do and to test them before they go live.