CrowdStrike acquires SGNL for $740 million to secure AI agents and combat identity threats

CrowdStrike to buy identity security startup SGNL for $740 million to tackle AI threats

Jan 8 (Reuters) - CrowdStrike (CRWD.O), opens new tab said on Thursday it would buy identity security startup SGNL in a deal valued at $740 million aiming to enhance its cybersecurity tools to help customers counter artificial intelligence-powered threats. The cybersecurity company looks to benefit from SGNL's "continuous identity" technology to prevent hackers from exploiting user identities as entry points for data theft with constant evaluations at a time when businesses are increasingly granting autonomous access to AI agents. CrowdStrike entered the identity security market with its acquisition of Preempt Security in 2020. Its identity business had generated more than $435 million in annual recurring revenue as of the second quarter of fiscal 2026. "We have already a big business there. And now what SGNL provides to us is really an identity fabric. And if we think about the threat environments, the adversaries aren't breaking in; they're logging in, and they're abusing identity," CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz told Reuters. Founded in 2021 by Scott Kriz and Erik Gustavson, SGNL offers an identity security platform that manages access in real time for protecting human, machine and AI identities across cloud and enterprise systems. SGNL has a "small team," and everyone will join CrowdStrike. "We're buying a team and technology. We want the great people that come with it," Kurtz said, signaling no planned layoffs. CrowdStrike said it is leveraging AI to boost its security operations center with autonomous AI agents, cutting down complex security tasks from days to hours, a key focus of its investment strategy for 2026 and beyond. The integration of SGNL's features into the Falcon platform is expected to be "relatively easy" for existing CrowdStrike users after the deal closes in the first quarter of fiscal 2027. CrowdStrike said the acquisition's purchase price is expected to be paid mainly in cash, with a portion in stock subject to vesting conditions. Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru Editing by Alan Barona Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Crowdstrike buys AI security startup SGNL for $740 million in latest deal push

Founder and CEO of CrowdStrike George Kurtz speaks during the Live Keynote Pregame during the Nvidia GTC (GPU Technology Conference) in Washington, DC, on Oct. 28, 2025. CrowdStrike announced Thursday that it is buying identity management startup SGNL in a deal valued at nearly $740 million as the cybersecurity provider beefs up defenses in the age of artificial intelligence cyberattacks. The acquisition will help users of Crowdstrike's Falcon cloud security platform better manage human and AI identity access requests and real-time risks, the company said. The deal is expected to close in the first fiscal quarter of 2027. "This is a massive opportunity for our customers to be able to protect themselves, and a massive opportunity for us to disrupt the identity market," CEO George Kurtz said in an exclusive interview with CNBC. He said the deal will help advance CrowdStrike's foothold in the multibillion-dollar identity management business, which totaled $435 million at the end of the second quarter and has become one of the most significant attack vectors. Companies have been bolstering identity security defenses as AI heightens the sophistication of cyberattacks.

CrowdStrike acquires continuous identity firm SGNL for $740m in push for next-gen security

CrowdStrike threatens to "[disrupt] the premise of modern privilege and access" CrowdStrike has confirmed it will be acquiring identity security startup SGNL for around $740 million in a mostly-cash deal, subject to regulatory approval. SGNL would help CrowdStrike strengthen its protection against AI-powered cyberthreats, CrowdStrike explained, by enabling access for human, non-human, and AI identities. This comes as IDC expects the identity security market to nearly double from $29 billion in 2025 to $56 billion by 2029, all to the backdrop of a growing agentic workforce that requires security companies to rethink identity management. "AI agents operate with superhuman speed and access, making every agent a privileged identity that must be protected," CrowdStrike CEI George Kurtz explained. "We're disrupting the premise of modern privilege and access - for every identity, human or machine. This is identity security built for the AI era." This next-generation principle would be based on real-time access control instead of static and permanent privileges. SGNL already continuously evaluates user identity and behavior/risk signals. "The world needs our technology to eradicate the significant risk that legacy standing privileges expose in today and tomorrow's environments," SGNL CEO Scott Kriz added. "Joining CrowdStrike provides us with global scale natively through cybersecurity's leading platform to transform enterprise security." Despite CrowdStrike's 2024 incident hitting share prices, they've continued to climb, as has company revenue which was up by nearly one-third per its most recent full fiscal year. The deal is expected to close during Crowdstrike's first quarter of fiscal 2027, or the end of April 2026. SGNL's staff are expected to be retained under the startup's new ownership, so there will be no layoffs associated with the trade.

CrowdStrike to acquire identity security startup SGNL for $740m

Austin, Texas-based cybersecurity player CrowdStrike says it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SGNL to ensure identity security for the AI era. The acquisition is designed to secure CrowdStrike's leadership in identity security in the AI era, "enabling access for human, non-human (NHI), and AI identities" to be continuously granted and revoked based on real-time risk, and setting a "new standard for agentic identity security". "AI agents operate with superhuman speed and access, making every agent a privileged identity that must be protected," said George Kurtz, CEO and founder of CrowdStrike. "With SGNL, CrowdStrike will deliver continuous, real-time access control that eliminates the known and unknown gaps from legacy standing privileges. We're disrupting the premise of modern privilege and access - for every identity, human or machine. This is identity security built for the AI era." CrowdStrike said identity security was rapidly becoming one of cybersecurity's largest and fastest-growing segments, citing IDC's forecast that the identity security market will grow from approximately $29bn in 2025 to $56bnby 2029. Identity security for the AI era requires a fundamentally different approach, said CrowdStrike, built on continuous risk evaluation and dynamic authorisation across modern access paths.It described SGNL as "the runtime access enforcement layer between modern identity providers and the SaaS and hyperscaler resources that people, NHIs, and AI agents access". Powered by CrowdStrike's Falcon platform, SGNL will it said, continuously evaluate identity, device, and behaviour "to dynamically grant, deny, or revoke access as conditions change, eliminating standing privilege access across every identity and environment". CrowdStrike said this would be a mainly cash deal with a portion to be delivered in the form of stock, subject to vesting conditions. The proposed acquisition should close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to the usual closing conditions, like regulatory clearance. A leading cybersecurity player, CrowdStrike has spent the last 18 months recovering from a major reputational hit back in 2024 when its software update caused arguably the worst IT outage in history. One in four Fortune 500 companies were thought to have been impacted. The outage, which occurred on 19 July 2024, quickly grew into a global crisis, with various sectors - most notably airlines, banks and healthcare - being severely disrupted as Microsoft computer systems shut down. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

CrowdStrike To Boost Identity Security For AI Agents With SGNL Acquisition

The cybersecurity giant says the deal will bring capabilities for 'continuous' identity security to its Falcon Next-Gen Identity Security offering. CrowdStrike announced Thursday that it has reached a deal to acquire SGNL, a startup that provides identity protection capabilities that will be crucial for helping to secure AI agents. The price tag for the deal was not disclosed, though CrowdStrike said it will be "predominantly" paid in cash, according to a news release. The deal is expected to be completed during the first quarter of the vendor's fiscal year, which closes April 30. [Related: 'Flexing' Its Muscle: CrowdStrike CEO Kurtz Says It's The First 'Hyperscaler Of Security'] Founded in 2021, SGNL provides a runtime access enforcement functionality that connects identity providers with SaaS and hyperscale infrastructure, CrowdStrike said. The startup's capabilities provide "continuous" identity security for human users as well as non-human identities and AI identities, according to the company. Key capabilities from SGNL include allowing access to be "continuously granted and revoked based on real-time risk," CrowdStrike said in its release. The SGNL technology will be integrated into the Falcon Next-Gen Identity Security offering once the acquisition closes, CrowdStrike said. The acquisition is the latest from CrowdStrike targeting an expansion of security capabilities related to AI. In August, CrowdStrike announced it had reached a $290 million deal to acquire a startup that provides data pipeline management, Onum. The technology is critical for CrowdStrike to enable the "clean" data that AI applications need to work most effectively, solution providers have told CRN. Then in September, CrowdStrike announced an agreement to acquire Pangea, a startup that offers guardrails for GenAI-powered applications. The $260 million deal has formed the basis for CrowdStrike's AI detection and response offering that debuted in December.

CrowdStrike to Acquire SGNL to Transform Identity Security for the AI Era

CrowdStrike announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SGNL, a leader in Continuous Identity CrowdStrike announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SGNL, a leader in Continuous Identity. This acquisition will accelerate CrowdStrike's leadership in Next-Gen Identity Security, enabling access for human, non-human (NHI), and AI identities to be continuously granted and revoked based on real-time risk. With SGNL, CrowdStrike will extend dynamic authorization across SaaS and hyperscaler cloud access layers. The combination of dynamic privilege and access coupled with Falcon® platform intelligence sets a new standard for agentic identity security.