DNSFilter's Major Growth Spurred by Innovation and Strong Partnerships

Average deal size increased by 192% amid key product updates and award wins

DNSFilter announced today that the company experienced rapid and significant growth in 2023, setting the stage for 2024. From three major award wins to strengthened partnerships to strategic hires and promotions, DNSFilter is well-positioned to continue innovating to serve customers and attract prospects and investors.

DNSFilter is trusted by over 32,000 customers to provide DNS security, including SportClips, Gemini, Thrive, Sourcepass, Viasat and McKee Foods. In 2023, the company raised $15 million in a Series A extension round and increased average deal size by 192%. The past year also marked new relationships with many strategic partners, including Pax8, Climb, SolCyber, Banyan and FokusMSP.

The company saw 17% growth in headcount in 2023 and bolstered its leadership team with key hires and promotions at the vice president level or higher, including Prashant Nirmal named chief marketing officer, Bob Gagnon hired as vice president of channel sales, Mario Oliver brought on as vice president of customer experience and Shawn Brady named vice president of sales. Additionally, Lauren Romer was hired as general counsel, Aliese Alter was promoted to chief of staff and Brendan Spooner and Mandy Cole were promoted to senior vice president of engineering and human resources, respectively.

Key product updates in 2023:

• A Generative AI category to expand the company's protective DNS software by enabling customers to block generative AI sites at the corporate level.
• Malicious Domain Protection to provide increased visibility and protection from Domain Generation Algorithms and other malicious domains.
• Hyper-V support specifically for Windows Roaming Client, with improved compatibility to address conflicts with some virtualized platforms or technologies.

Additional company highlights in 2023 included:

• DNSFilter was named Cutting Edge DNS Security under the Top Infosec Innovator category of Cyber Defense Magazine's 11th Annual InfoSec Awards.
• For the third consecutive year, the company was selected as the Web Filtering and Control Solution of the Year in the annual CyberSecurity Breakthrough Awards.
• Washington Business Journal selected CEO and co-founder Ken Carnesi as one of its 40 under 40 for 2024.

Ken Carnesi, CEO and co-founder, DNSFilter, said: "DNSFilter continues to grow rapidly, in terms of revenue, client list, and headcount. For instance, we're handling about 2.5 trillion DNS requests a month right now, which works out to about a million per second. DNSFilter is a place where outsiders want to work and that customers trust. We're committed to serving customers as their needs grow and change, which is why we continue to iterate and innovate new capabilities and features. I couldn't be prouder of our hard-working team, and I'm certain our 2023 momentum will spur us forward into an even stronger 2024."

About the company:
DNSFilter is redefining how organizations secure their largest threat vector: the Internet itself. DNSFilter is making the internet safer and workplaces more productive. In 2022 the threat protection leader blocked 9.1 billion threats, more than any other threat detection software globally. With 70% of attacks involving the Domain Name System (DNS) layer, DNSFilter provides protective DNS powered by machine learning that uniquely identifies 61% more threats than competitors on an average of seven days earlier, including zero-day attacks.  

Over 26 million monthly users trust DNSFilter to protect them from phishing, malware, and advanced cyber threats. DNSFilter's brands include Webshrinker, its next generation web categorization software, and Guardian, a consumer app focused on privacy protection.