Kasada
Kasada builds anti-bot and fraud defense software that blocks scrapers and fake traffic.
On the record
Checkpoint: Adoption pace of Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol and whether Akamai becomes its default infrastructure partner
The call
Kasada has real enterprise depth in bot defense but sits as the smallest of three Forrester Leaders while Cloudflare, Akamai, and Visa build the same agent-trust layer it is betting its future on.
Kasada is a company that stops fake traffic and fraud attacks on websites and apps by detecting bots pretending to be real users. It has real customers and ten years of data about how bots work, which gives it an edge today. But Cloudflare and Akamai are adding bot-stopping features to their huge bundled services, and Visa is building technology to verify that AI agents are trustworthy, which could turn bot-stopping into a basic utility that anyone can offer. If payment networks and internet giants decide bot-stopping should be a standard feature rather than a specialty, Kasada's growth and value could shrink fast.
Why
01
AI pressure: AI-driven scraping and human-like automation bots. AI-built bots reportedly bypass managed defenses at high rates, forcing Kasada into a constant detection arms race that never lets up. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.
02
Bigger players: Cloudflare, Akamai, and Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol. Cloudflare and Akamai already bundle bot management into their CDN pricing, and Visa is pushing agent verification through Akamai, right where Kasada wants to grow. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. Deep enterprise integrations and a decade of bot telemetry that make ripping Kasada out and switching costly for existing customers.
What would change this call
Cloudflare or Akamai announces upgraded agent-trust features bundled into standard CDN pricing within 12 months. Would show bundlers are closing the specialization gap Kasada relies on.
Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol names Akamai or another CDN as a reference/exclusive infrastructure partner. Would show agent verification settling as a commoditized standard outside Kasada's control.
Kasada's headcount or reported growth rate stays near 8% YoY through the next funding round. Would support the view that Kasada is stalling rather than expanding its enterprise base.
Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol names Akamai or another CDN as a reference/exclusive infrastructure partner. Would show agent verification settling as a commoditized standard outside Kasada's control.
Kasada's headcount or reported growth rate stays near 8% YoY through the next funding round. Would support the view that Kasada is stalling rather than expanding its enterprise base.
Key numbers
- Raised $20M in Feb 2026, total funding near $60M
- Headcount grew ~8% YoY, to about 120 people
- Says it protects over $150B in customer eCommerce revenue
Named risks
- Category commoditization as Visa and Akamai build agent-verification infrastructure Kasada is betting its growth on.
- AI-driven managed-bypass tooling reportedly defeats detection in most attempts per a competitor-adjacent source (July 2026).
- Smallest of three Forrester co-Leaders with modest ~8% YoY headcount growth, limiting scale versus rivals.
- Public revenue and performance figures rely on vendor-commissioned studies (Forrester TEI) rather than independent audits.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | gaining on | Ships bundled bot management with no structural barrier to deeper investment, as of 2026 |
| Akamai | contesting | Protects ~30% of Fortune 500 with bundled bot management and is a named Visa Trusted Agent Protocol partner, 2025-12-18 |
| Visa (Trusted Agent Protocol) | gaining on | Launched agent-verification infrastructure with 100+ partners Oct 2025, landing directly in Kasada's growth category |
| DataDome | contesting | Co-Leader alongside Kasada in Forrester Wave Bot and Agent Trust Management, June 2026 |
| HUMAN Security | contesting | Co-Leader alongside Kasada in Forrester Wave Bot and Agent Trust Management, June 2026 |
Questions people ask
- Is Kasada profitable in 2026?
- Kasada is privately held and does not publish audited financials. It raised a $20M round led by EQT on Feb 3, 2026, bringing total funding to roughly $60M, which suggests it is not yet self-sustaining without external capital.
- Who owns Kasada?
- Kasada is venture-backed and privately held, founded by Sam Crowther in 2015. Its Feb 2026 $20M round was led by growth-equity firm EQT, with Ten Eleven Ventures, StepStone Group, Reinventure, and Malcolm Turnbull among earlier backers.
- Who is Kasada's biggest competitor?
- Kasada competes directly with DataDome and HUMAN Security, all three named co-Leaders in Forrester's Q2 2026 Bot and Agent Trust Management Wave (June 2026). It also faces bundled bot management from Cloudflare and Akamai, which protects roughly 30% of Fortune 500 firms.
- Could AI replace Kasada's bot detection?
- AI cuts both ways: it grows Kasada's addressable threat, but a July 2026 scraping-industry source (Scrapfly) claims managed-bypass services defeat Kasada's defenses about 94% of the time, indicating the AI-driven arms race is intensifying rather than being won outright.
- Is Kasada growing fast?
- Kasada's headcount reached 120 as of March 2026 per LinkedIn, up from about 84 in early 2022, roughly 8% annual growth, modest for a venture-backed security vendor rather than hypergrowth.
- What is Kasada's valuation?
- Startup Daily reported a post-money valuation of approximately $300M following Kasada's roughly US$20M/A$30M funding round, reported December 2025.
Timeline
- 2026-06-24Named Leader in Forrester Wave Bot and Agent Trust Management Q2 2026, alongside DataDome, HUMAN
- 2026-02-0510-year anniversary; launched Account Intelligence and rebranded as Fraud and Digital Trust Platform
- 2026-02-03Raised $20M led by EQT; total funding raised reaches approximately $60M
- 2026-01-21Launched AI Agent Trust product for agentic commerce verification
- 2025-12-18Visa and 100+ partners including Akamai complete Trusted Agent Protocol rollout
- 2025-12Reported post-money valuation of approximately $300M
- 2025-10Visa launches Trusted Agent Protocol for AI-agent commerce verification
- 2024-Q3Named Strong Performer in Forrester Wave Bot Management Software
- 2023Launched KasadaIQ threat intelligence service
- 2021-12Series C raised, $23M led by StepStone Group
Revision history
26 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- 10 Years of Kasada & launching Account Intelligence (2026-02-05)
- Kasada Raises $20 Million for Anti-Bot Expansion (2026-02-03)
- Data-scraping bot blocker backed by Malcolm Turnbull pockets $30 million (2025-12-11)
- Management and Employees List
- Kasada Secures $20 Million Round (2026-02-03)
- The Total Economic Impact™ Of Kasada (2026-05-10)
- Crocs Enhances Customer Journey and Safeguards Revenue Growth with Kasada
- Kasada - Headcount, Funding & Open Jobs (2026-06-20)
- LinkedIn (2026-03-18)
- Life at Kasada
- Forrester Wave Bot and Agent Trust Management Q2 2026: How Prosopo Compares (2026-06-24)
- Kasada Launches AI Agent Trust to Secure Agentic Commerce (2026-01-21)