RedShield Security
NZ firm that virtual-patches web apps to meet PCI and NZISM compliance rules.
On the record
Checkpoint: AWS Shield's next round of native WAF and posture automation features rolls out
The call
RedShield keeps a narrow compliance niche alive even as its own cloud landlord and bigger rivals build the automated defenses it used to sell by hand.
RedShield helps companies protect their websites and data from attacks by writing custom security rules and checking compliance, all running on top of Amazon Web Services. The hard part of what RedShield does is the custom human work and the promise to cover compliance problems, but the easy part (basic attack blocking) is something Amazon is already building into its own service and improving every year. If Amazon adds artificial intelligence to automatically tune its security protections in 2026 or 2027, RedShield's customers will have less reason to pay for a middle-man company when they can get similar protection directly from Amazon for less money.
Why
01
AI pressure: AWS Shield's ML-driven WAF and posture automation. AWS is automating the DDoS and WAF-tuning work RedShield's engineers do by hand, on the same cloud RedShield runs on. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.
02
Bigger players: Cloudflare, Akamai, F5, Imperva. Cloudflare's WAF already leads Forrester rankings and covers the same virtual-patching ground at larger scale and lower unit cost. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. PCI and NZISM compliance warranties tied to human-authored patches give it trust with regulated ANZ clients that generic WAFs don't offer.
What would change this call
AWS ships new native WAF/posture automation features through 2026-2027. Landlord AWS directly narrows the margin and scope of RedShield's resold security layer.
A named ANZ enterprise or government logo publicly switches to Cloudflare or AWS-native security. Confirms real customer loss to bigger incumbents, not just competitive noise.
Primary revenue disclosure or funding round emerges after 2019's last raise. Would confirm whether the Getlatka-estimated 2024-2025 revenue decline is real or reversing.
A named ANZ enterprise or government logo publicly switches to Cloudflare or AWS-native security. Confirms real customer loss to bigger incumbents, not just competitive noise.
Primary revenue disclosure or funding round emerges after 2019's last raise. Would confirm whether the Getlatka-estimated 2024-2025 revenue decline is real or reversing.
Key numbers
- Headcount roughly 54 to 60 staff
- AWS case study: mitigated DDoS peak above 1.3 Tbps
- No funding round since Series B in Sept 2019
Named risks
- Revenue reliance on unverified aggregator estimates showing possible decline from $6.3M to $5.8M between 2024 and 2025.
- Landlord-as-competitor: AWS Shield shipping overlapping DDoS and posture-analysis features atop the same infrastructure RedShield resells.
- No new institutional funding round reported since 2019, limiting capital for competing against well-funded incumbents.
- Conflicting public reports on CEO identity (Fabian Partigliani vs Dovid Clarke) signal possible unresolved leadership transition.
- Flat headcount (roughly 50 to 65) since 2021 suggests stalled organic growth versus scaling incumbents.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | losing to | Named Forrester WAF Leader Q1 2025 (March 2025), far larger scale and analyst recognition than RedShield |
| AWS Shield | losing to | AWS, RedShield's own infrastructure supplier, shipped posture-analysis preview feature and DDoS flow logs in 2026 |
| Akamai | contesting | Named repeatedly as WAF/WAAP incumbent buyers compare against RedShield as of 2026 |
| F5 Networks | contesting | Cited as category incumbent in third-party WAF alternative comparisons, 2026 |
| Imperva | contesting | Cited as category incumbent in third-party WAF alternative comparisons, 2026 |
| Fastly | contesting | Named as Next-Gen WAF alternative vendor in 2026 comparison content |
Questions people ask
- Is RedShield Security profitable?
- No public profitability data exists. RedShield is private and does not disclose financials. Aggregator Getlatka estimated 2025 revenue at $5.8M, down from an estimated $6.3M in 2024, suggesting a possible revenue decline rather than growth, as of December 2025.
- Who owns RedShield Security?
- RedShield is privately held. Its most identified institutional investor is Pencarrow Private Equity, a Wellington, NZ private-equity firm that made a growth-capital investment in September 2019. No new institutional funding round has been publicly reported since then.
- Could AI replace RedShield Security?
- Basic WAF tuning and volumetric DDoS mitigation are increasingly automated by AWS Shield and rivals like Cloudflare. RedShield's harder-to-replace piece is human-authored, business-logic virtual patching plus PCI/ISO/NZISM compliance warranties, which resist simple AI automation as of mid-2026.
- Is RedShield Security's biggest competitor Cloudflare?
- Cloudflare is the most commonly cited incumbent competitor; it was named a Leader in Forrester's Q1 2025 WAF Wave (per Cloudflare's own March 2025 release). Akamai, F5, Imperva, and Fastly are also named as WAF/WAAP category rivals RedShield is compared against.
- Is RedShield Security growing or shrinking?
- Signals are mixed: Getlatka's aggregator estimate shows revenue falling from $6.3M in 2024 to $5.8M in 2025, while headcount rose slightly from 48 in 2024 to about 53 in 2026 per the same source, indicating a stalled rather than declining or booming trajectory.
- Who is RedShield Security's CEO?
- Leadership is unclear from public sources. Fabian Partigliani is listed as CEO in some directories, while SignalHire lists newly hired Dovid Clarke, a former Victorian state government CISO who joined RedShield around January 2026, as CEO. This conflict remains unresolved as of February 2026.
Timeline
- 2026-05-29AWS Shield Advanced adds DDoS attack flow logs for packet-level forensic visibility
- 2026-01RedShield hires Dovid Clarke, former Victorian government whole-of-government CISO
- 2025-09-26RedShield publishes content on GenAI-powered bot and DDoS threats
- 2025-07-16RedShield launches 'Third Horizon' identity/intent challenge layer against bot attacks
- 2024-09RedShield's new AWS-powered architecture extends to US and rest-of-world
- 2024-02-07RedShield migrates to new AWS-powered architecture using AWS Global Accelerator
- 2023-06RedShield joins AWS ISV Accelerate co-sell partner program
- 2019-09-16Pencarrow Private Equity makes growth-capital investment in RedShield
- 2008RedShield Security founded in Wellington, New Zealand
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
- Products, Competitors, Financials, Employees, Headquarters Locations (2026-02-15)
- RedShield Security - Ownership and Business Overview (2019-09-16)
- RedShield Security Stock Price, Funding, Valuation, Revenue & Financial Statements (2023-06-26)
- RedShield: The cybersecurity company embracing New Zealand's authenticity with the FernMark
- RedShield Security Joins AWS ISV Accelerate Program
- RedShield Revenue, Funding & Growth History (2025) (2025-12-21)
- Revenue, Competitors, Alternatives (2022-04-19)
- Strengthening Web Application Security at Scale Using AWS Global Accelerator with RedShield (2026-07-15)
- RedShield Employee Directory, Headcount & Staff (2026-06-18)
- RedShield Security 2026 Company Profile
- RedShield Security Rating, Vendor Risk Report, and Data Breaches (2026-07-19)
- Homepage