Startup News: Arctic Wolf announces strategic acquisition of Revelstoke

Arctic Wolf is broadening its cybersecurity offerings with its planned takeover of Revelstoke.

Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Arctic Wolf announced the acquisition last week, adding that the deal will give it access to Revelstoke’s main offering: the Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response platform, known by its acronym, SOAR. This technology was designed to alleviate the strain on IT teams by incorporating automated responses to a variety of events.

“Revelstoke has disrupted legacy SOAR solutions by creating a Rosetta Stone for security and IT solutions, seamlessly integrating disparate data and systems, allowing for faster, smarter, more efficient security operations outcomes,” Arctic Wolf said in its press release.

Arctic Wolf was founded in 2012 and its last-known valuation as of July 2021 was $4.34 billion. Last year, the company released the results of a survey it sponsored concluding that 63% of 900 senior IT and cybersecurity decision-makers at U.S. companies said that cyberattacks were their top business concern.

Headway, a digital mental health provider, becomes a unicorn

Headway, an online platform for connecting people seeking mental healthcare with therapists, has reportedly crossed the $1 billion valuation mark with its latest funding round.

According to digital healthcare news site MobiHealthNews, New York City-based Headway announced recently that it has closed a $125 million Series C round led by Spark Capital, boosting its valuation to unicorn status. Other investors involved in the financing round include Thrive Capital, Accel, and Andreessen Horowitz. Will Reed, a general partner at Spark Capital, will join Headway’s board of directors.

The MobiHealthNews article mentioned that the new investment will help Headway expand the availability of its platform in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

A startup that’s making earplugs that resemble jewelry

Seems like everyone these days has devices plugged into their ears. Many are sporting high-fidelity “buds” that allow them to listen to their favorite bands, podcasters, or audiobooks while effectively tuning out the world. But others simply want plugs to block out loud sounds and bring a little tranquility to their lives.

In the past, earplug models have tended to focus on function, not style. But the founders of Loop Earplugs, a Belgium-based startup, have come up with earplug designs that resemble modern jewelry.

According to a CNBC profile of Loop, the company’s earplugs “have a distinctive circle design — a loop — in colors and finishes from solid black and shiny silver to orange, pink or purple.”

These stylish earplugs have won their share of fans. Loop’s sales, writes CNBC, jumped to roughly $44 million last year, a 350% increase over 2021 as pandemic-era restrictions on large noisy gatherings were lifted.

Today, according to CNBC, the company has 200 employees, with headquarters in Antwerp and offices in Amsterdam, New York, and Shanghai.