Estonian startup Blackwall valued at $2.2 billion after €100 million round

Blackwall, a startup that filters bot traffic and separates malicious automated programs from other web traffic, has raised €100 million. The round values the company at an estimated $2.2 billion and pushes its valuation above $2 billion.

Estonia-linked venture capital firm Tera Ventures made its first investment in Blackwall about six years ago, of approximately $300,000. Founding partner Stanislav Ivanov said the firm had watched how the company progressed, how its first pilot customers responded, how the product developed and what feedback it received from the market. He said Tera Ventures then joined two further funding rounds before Blackwall began raising capital in London.

Ivanov said several investors took part in the latest round and that the lead investor is ABP, a global growth fund whose funds have a combined value of $2 billion to $3 billion. He said the round established a valuation of $2.2 billion and that continued growth could bring higher figures later. For Tera Ventures, he said, the increase means a potentially very strong return for the fund. He added that the company may at some point go public or complete another exit, and that the result is above all proof that the firm’s strategy works.

Blackwall is the second company to reach unicorn status in the past two weeks, alongside Skeleton. Doris Põld, CEO of the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications, said Estonia now has 12 unicorns in total and that she thinks that is more per capita than any other country. She expects more such news over the next year, saying recent successes have come less from traditional software development and more from deep-tech companies and the cybersecurity sector, particularly in collaboration with other industries. She said she believes the technology sector’s next strengths will come from that cooperation and from deep tech, including a possible combination of technology and defence.

ERR was unable to obtain a comment from Blackwall executives on Wednesday.