Darktrace

Key facts

Focus areas

About

Darktrace is a cybersecurity company based in Cambridge, UK, founded in 2013. Its Behavioral Defense Platform learns what normal activity looks like inside each organisation and uses that baseline to detect, investigate and contain attacks across networks, cloud, email, operational technology, endpoints and identities. About 10,000 customers in 110 countries use the platform, from manufacturers and banks to city governments and credit unions. It employs more than 2,300 people, with headquarters in Cambridge, major offices in New York, London and Singapore, and a second research centre in The Hague. Darktrace was listed on the London Stock Exchange from 2021 until Thoma Bravo took it private in October 2024 in an all-cash deal worth about US$5.3bn. Since then it has bought Cado Security for cloud forensics and Mira Security for encrypted traffic visibility. In September 2026 it made Darktrace / SECURE AI generally available to govern employee use of AI tools and the behaviour of AI agents, and Ed Jennings has led the company as President and CEO since March 2026.

How they use AI

Darktrace builds its own machine learning rather than relying on fixed signatures or rules. Its self-learning models build a behavioural profile of every user, device and connection inside a customer's environment, then flag activity that departs from that profile. That lets the platform spot new and insider threats that rule-based tools miss. The Real-Time AI Analyst, previously called Cyber AI Analyst, investigates alerts on its own, links related events into a single incident and writes up its findings for security teams. Autonomous response then contains the threat, either natively or through firewalls, EDR, SOAR and ITSM tools, by blocking a connection or limiting a device's normal behaviour rather than shutting down the business. Darktrace / SECURE AI applies the same behavioural approach to AI itself. It finds unsanctioned AI use, analyses prompts sent to tools such as ChatGPT Enterprise, Claude, Microsoft Copilot and Amazon Bedrock, and tracks the identities and actions of AI agents. Adaptive Human Defense, launched in March 2026, uses each employee's real behaviour to deliver personalised security training in real time.

Products and services

• Darktrace Behavioral Defense Platform — Unified platform that learns each organisation's normal behaviour and detects, investigates and responds to threats across all coverage areas, with Real-Time AI Analyst and autonomous response built in
• Darktrace / HYBRID NETWORK — Detection and response across on-premises, cloud, OT, endpoint and identity traffic, including encrypted traffic visibility, automated evidence capture and exposure prioritisation
• Darktrace / EMAIL — Email and collaboration security that stops phishing, account takeover and data exfiltration across inboxes and messaging tools; also offered as a managed service through MSSPs
• Darktrace / CLOUD — Cloud detection and response with real-time architecture modelling and forensic investigation, extended by the Cado Security acquisition
• Darktrace / OT — Threat detection and risk management for industrial control systems and critical infrastructure
• Darktrace / IDENTITY — Detection of compromised accounts and misuse of identities across SaaS and identity platforms
• Darktrace / ENDPOINT — Behavioural detection and response on laptops, servers and other endpoints
• Darktrace / SECURE AI — Governance for enterprise AI use: Shadow AI discovery, prompt analysis across major AI assistants, policy management and monitoring of AI agent identities and actions; generally available since September 2026
• Darktrace / Adaptive Human Defense — Personalised, real-time security training for employees based on their actual behaviour, launched March 2026
• Darktrace / Proactive Exposure Management — Attack surface management and exposure prioritisation that maps likely attack paths before they are used
• Darktrace / Incident Readiness & Recovery — Incident simulations, response playbooks and recovery support for security teams

Notable customers / partners

• Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast
• HARMAN International
• Centre Parcs
• City of Las Vegas
• Banco Galicia
• ESL Federal Credit Union
• Vulcan Steel

Key people

• Ed Jennings — President and Chief Executive Officer
• Adam Towns — Chief Financial and Operating Officer
• Mike McGuinness — Chief Revenue Officer
• Beth Shea — Chief Customer Officer
• Issy Richards — Chief Product Officer
• Stephen Pickman — Chief Technology Officer
• Mike Beck — Chief Information Security Officer
• Chris Kozup — Chief Marketing Officer
• David Morris — Chief Legal Officer
• David Smith — Chief People Officer

Investors

• Thoma Bravo