CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc.

Company type	Public
Industry	Cybersecurity
Founded	2011 (2011)
Founder	George Kurtz, Dmitri Alperovitch, Gregg Marston
Headquarters	Austin, Texas , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	George Kurtz (CEO), Michael Sentonas (President)
Products	Endpoint security, cyber threat intelligence, incident response services
Revenue	$3.95 billion (FY 2025)
Operating income	−$120.4 million (FY 2025)
Net income	−$19.27 million (FY 2025)
Total assets	$8.7 billion (FY 2025)
Total equity	$3.28 billion (FY 2025)
Number of employees	10,000+ (2025)
Website	www.crowdstrike.com

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. is a cybersecurity firm based in Austin, Texas, United States, specializing in endpoint security, cyber threat intelligence, and incident response services.

Established in 2011 by George Kurtz, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Gregg Marston, CrowdStrike has become a prominent entity within the cybersecurity sector. The company is publicly listed on NASDAQ under the symbol CRWD and is included in both the Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 indices.

CrowdStrike has been instrumental in probing significant cyber incidents such as the 2014 Sony Pictures hack and the 2015–16 cyber intrusions targeting the Democratic National Committee (DNC). These engagements have bolstered its standing and demonstrated its expertise in managing complex cybersecurity challenges.

As of the 2025 fiscal year, CrowdStrike employs more than 10,000 staff members and generated revenues amounting to $3.95 billion. Despite reporting an operating loss of $120.4 million and a net loss of $19.27 million, the company’s total assets increased to $8.7 billion with shareholders’ equity reaching $3.28 billion, indicating sustained investment and growth momentum.

The leadership team is headed by CEO George Kurtz alongside President Michael Sentonas, whose guidance supports CrowdStrike’s competitive positioning across its global enterprises.

On July 19, 2024, a defective software update from CrowdStrike caused extensive IT disruptions impacting sectors including aviation, finance, and media, underscoring inherent operational risks within cybersecurity service provision.

History

CrowdStrike was founded in 2011 by George Kurtz (CEO), Dmitri Alperovitch (former CTO), and Gregg Marston (retired CFO). The following year, former FBI official Shawn Henry joined to lead CrowdStrike Services, Inc., focusing on security consulting and incident response. In June 2013, the company introduced its flagship antivirus product, CrowdStrike Falcon.

In May 2014, CrowdStrike’s intelligence contributed to U.S. Department of Justice charges against five Chinese military hackers accused of economic cyber espionage. The firm also uncovered Energetic Bear’s operations—linked to Russia’s Federal Security Service—targeting entities within the global energy sector. After the Sony Pictures breach, CrowdStrike attributed the attack to North Korean state actors and detailed their tactics. The company further exposed Putter Panda, a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group.

In 2015, CrowdStrike revealed VENOM, a severe vulnerability affecting the QEMU hypervisor with implications for cloud security. Later that year, it reported ongoing cyberattacks by Chinese threat actors on technology and pharmaceutical companies despite an official U.S.-China agreement to curb economic espionage.

Google participated in CrowdStrike’s Series C funding round in 2015; subsequent Series D and E rounds amassed $480 million by May 2019. By 2017, CrowdStrike surpassed a $1 billion valuation with estimated annual revenues near $100 million and exceeded a $3 billion valuation by 2018. Major investors include Telstra, March Capital Partners, Rackspace, Accel Partners, and Warburg Pincus.

The company went public on NASDAQ in June 2019 with shares rising over 70%, placing its valuation above $11 billion. In 2020, CrowdStrike expanded into identity security with Falcon Identity Threat Protection, which evolved into a managed service integrated with Falcon Complete by 2022; it also launched a Cloud Threat Hunting Service during this period.

In December 2021, CrowdStrike shifted its headquarters from Sunnyvale, California to Austin, Texas. In 2023, it introduced CrowdStream through collaboration with Cribl.io and unveiled Charlotte AI—a generative AI-powered security analyst enhancing automated threat detection as part of Falcon’s AI-driven capabilities.

September 2023 marked the debut of Falcon Foundry—a no-code application development platform aimed at a wider user base. In September 2024, CrowdStrike Financial Services was launched to offer payment solutions and financing options facilitating easier access to Falcon products.

CrowdStrike was added to the S&P 500 index in June 2024. The company allocated over $360,000 towards federal lobbying efforts in the first half of 2024 and spent $620,000 throughout 2023. It continues to prioritize collaborations with U.S. government agencies while expanding its presence within the public sector market.

Acquisitions

Beginning in 2017, CrowdStrike has deliberately grown its product offerings and expanded its market presence through a series of acquisitions. In November 2017, the company acquired Payload Security, known for its automated malware analysis sandbox technology. To strengthen its zero trust and conditional access features, CrowdStrike purchased Preempt Security in September 2020 for $96 million. In February 2021, it invested $400 million to acquire Humio, a Danish platform specializing in log management, which was then integrated into CrowdStrike's Extended Detection and Response (XDR) suite.

Later that year, CrowdStrike expanded its zero trust endpoint security to include data protection by acquiring SecureCircle, a SaaS cybersecurity provider. In October 2022, the company further enhanced its risk management capabilities by acquiring Reposify, a vendor focused on external attack surface management. Maintaining its emphasis on cloud security and artificial intelligence technologies, CrowdStrike acquired Israeli startups Bionic.ai in 2023 for $350 million, followed by Flow Security for $200 million and Adaptive Shield for $300 million in 2024.

These strategic acquisitions demonstrate CrowdStrike’s commitment to strengthening its market position and extending its global footprint within the cybersecurity industry.

Earnings

Recent Financial Information

Year	Revenue	Net Cash Flow (from operations)
FY 2020	$481.4 MM	$99.9 MM
FY 2021	$874.4 MM	$356.6 MM
FY 2022	$1.45 B	$574.8 MM
FY 2023	$2.24 B	$941 MM
FY 2024	$3.06 B	$1.17 B
FY 2025	$3.95 B	$1.38 B

In 2024, CrowdStrike achieved revenue totaling $3.06 billion, reflecting a year-over-year growth rate of 36%.

Russian hacking investigations

CrowdStrike was instrumental in probing the cyber intrusions targeting the Democratic National Committee, attributing the attacks to Russian intelligence groups APT 28 and APT 29—an assessment later confirmed by FBI Director James Comey in 2017. The company's forensic work became crucial after the FBI was denied direct access to the DNC's servers.

In December 2016, CrowdStrike disclosed that Fancy Bear, linked to Russian interests, targeted ArtOS, a Ukrainian artillery fire-control application, resulting in notable operational disruptions. The firm also uncovered malware variants distributed on Ukrainian military forums utilizing X-Agent implants. Nevertheless, these findings were contested by the International Institute for Strategic Studies and Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, who argued that artillery losses had been exaggerated and were not attributable to cyberattacks.

Other cybersecurity organizations such as SecureWorks and investigative reports from the Associated Press corroborated CrowdStrike’s conclusions regarding Fancy Bear’s targeting of Ukrainian military infrastructure.

During the Trump–Ukraine controversy, a baseless conspiracy theory emerged claiming CrowdStrike was involved in hacking DNC servers to implicate Russia; this narrative was propagated by far-right media outlets and Russian state-controlled channels. Former President Donald Trump referenced this claim during a 2019 phone call with Ukraine’s president; however, it has been thoroughly debunked by numerous independent sources.

CrowdStrike’s role in these prominent investigations has elevated its stature as a leading cybersecurity company with expertise in threat intelligence and incident response services.

The 2024 Incident

On July 19, 2024, CrowdStrike issued a configuration update for its Falcon endpoint detection and response agent. This update contained a defect that led to widespread blue screen of death errors on millions of Windows devices worldwide, causing them to enter persistent bootloops and become unusable. The root cause was traced to a malfunction in Channel File 291, which induced operating system failures. This disruption affected critical industries such as airlines, broadcasters including Sky News, financial institutions, healthcare providers, and emergency response teams.

Following the incident, CrowdStrike’s stock experienced a significant decline, closing at $304.96 on the day of the event—a drop of 11.10%. While a corrective patch was made available, devices trapped in bootloops were unable to receive it automatically. Resolving the problem required IT administrators to manually remove Channel File 291 by booting into safe mode or utilizing Windows Recovery Mode—procedures that necessitated local administrative rights and BitLocker recovery keys if encryption was active. Microsoft also reported that some users managed to fix the problem by rebooting their machines up to fifteen times.

By July 22, the company’s shares had further dropped to $263.91, representing a 13.46% loss. On July 24, CrowdStrike published a Post-Incident Review and sent apology communications accompanied by $10 Uber Eats gift cards to impacted partners. A comprehensive Root Cause Analysis outlining the event and mitigation measures was released on August 6.

In reaction to the crisis, CrowdStrike revised its operational approach by introducing enhanced testing protocols for content configurations; implementing additional deployment stages with acceptance validations; involving third-party audits for code and quality assurance; and adopting phased update rollouts that enable customers to schedule updates according to their preferences. The financial repercussions for Fortune 500 companies affected by this incident have been estimated at $5.4 billion.

See also

• Operating systems
• Chinese intelligence activity abroad
• Chinese espionage in the United States
• Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
• Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (January–June 2017)