CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike provides endpoint protection, identity and cloud security, threat intelligence and breach response services, delivered through the cloud-native Falcon platform launched in 2013. George Kurtz, the chief executive, co-founded the company in 2011 with Dmitri Alperovitch and Gregg Marston. It was based in Sunnyvale, California at its IPO and moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas in December 2021. Its threat research has been cited in public attributions of state-sponsored attacks, including the 2016 Democratic National Committee breach.

Warburg Pincus financed the company from inception: according to the IPO prospectus, CrowdStrike Holdings was formed in November 2011 to acquire the shares of CrowdStrike, Inc. held by Warburg Pincus funds. In July 2015 Google Capital (now CapitalG) invested in a $100 million Series C. Accel led a $100 million Series D in May 2017 with CapitalG, Warburg Pincus, March Capital Partners and Telstra participating, which brought total funding to $256 million and valued the company above $1 billion. In June 2018 Accel, General Atlantic and IVP led a $200 million Series E with CapitalG and March Capital, at a $3 billion valuation and roughly $481 million raised in total.

CrowdStrike priced its IPO on the Nasdaq in June 2019 at $34 per share, above its $28 to $30 range, selling 18 million shares for about $572 million in net proceeds. The stock closed its first day at $58, a market value of $11.4 billion, nearly four times the 2018 private valuation. Its prospectus showed Warburg Pincus holding 30.2%, Accel 20.2% and CapitalG 11.1% before the offering, and CNBC estimated those stakes at more than $3 billion, $2 billion and $1 billion after the first day. Revenue grew from $249.8 million in the fiscal year ended January 2019 to $4.81 billion in the year ended January 2026, per SEC filings. It joined the S&P 500 in June 2024, the month before a faulty update caused global outages on July 19, 2024.

The company shows how a growth equity investor can underwrite a business from formation. Warburg Pincus entered at founding, Accel and CapitalG added capital at the $1 billion stage, and the IPO came eight years after founding with the three largest backers holding over 60% of the shares between them. The 2018 Series E investors realized close to a fourfold markup on the first trading day alone.