NetSPI and Synack to Merge, Forming A Leading Offensive Cybersecurity Platform
Combined company pairs elite “white hat” hackers with agentic AI to deliver security validation at scale
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MINNEAPOLIS and REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NetSPI®, a global leader in modern penetration testing, and Synack, a global leader in continuous security validation, today announced a definitive agreement to merge and form the industry’s leading offensive cybersecurity platform. The combination brings together two of the premier expert-led offensive security organizations and integrates agentic AI across the combined platform to deliver continuous testing and validation at enterprise scale.
As the industry explores fully autonomous testing approaches, these two companies share the conviction that AI is most powerful when combined with expert judgment. By bringing together leading security talent and AI-enabled capabilities, the merger positions the combined company to deliver more sophisticated testing at greater scale.
The combined company is well over $200 million in revenue and serves a blue-chip client base that includes top cloud providers, top U.S. banks, MAMAA (Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet) companies, the Fortune 100, as well as U.S. federal agencies.
Together, the companies bring nearly 40 years of combined operating history and more than 13 million hours of premier, real-world offensive testing experience, providing the scale, expertise and capabilities to help organizations address increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats.
“AI is transforming security testing, but it’s still experts who find the vulnerabilities that lead to real breaches,” said Jay Kaplan, CEO of Synack. “Bad actors are unpredictable; you need people who understand context, business logic, and attacker intent to catch them. Our challenge to the market: put our expert + AI team against any fully autonomous platform, on a real target, anytime. Autonomous tools find exploits. Experts armed with AI find the ones that actually breach you.”
The combined company will offer customers expanded capabilities across the full offensive security lifecycle, delivering:
- One of the industry’s deepest benches of vetted offensive security talent, amplified by agentic AI
- Purpose-built AI that accelerates discovery, analysis, and validation of findings
- Continuous security testing and validation across the full attack surface
- Expanded service offerings with flexible delivery models
- Greater operational scale, efficiency, and accelerated innovation.
“Every conversation about this merger started with the same question: What does the customer get out of it? The answer is simple,” said Aaron Shilts, CEO of NetSPI. “More coverage, deeper expertise, and faster answers from a partner they already know and trust. On day one, nothing about how customers work with us changes, but what they can access grows significantly.”
The combined company will continue supporting existing customers, partners, and employees throughout the integration, with a sustained focus on service continuity and long-term growth.
KKR will support the combined company’s growth plan, including investment in technology and product development, expansion of the combined company’s offensive security talent base, and continued international growth.
“Offensive security is a large and structurally growing market driven by regulatory requirements, expanding attack surfaces, and increasingly sophisticated threats amplified by AI,” said Ben Pederson, Managing Director on KKR’s Technology Growth team. “The combination of these two companies creates a platform with the scale, technology, and talent to serve the most demanding enterprise and government customers. Given the pace of adversary innovation, customers will be looking for a trusted partner to help maneuver the accelerating velocity of threats and breaches, and we believe there will be no other company in the market with the breadth or depth of offensive security capabilities.”
The transaction is expected to close in October 2026, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
Piper Sandler is serving as financial advisor and Latham & Watkins LLP is serving as legal counsel to Synack. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is serving as legal advisor to KKR and NetSPI.
About NetSPI
NetSPI® pioneered Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) and leads the industry in modern, continuous pentesting. Combining world-class security professionals with AI and automation, NetSPI delivers clarity, speed, and scale across 50+ pentest types, attack surface management, and vulnerability prioritization. The NetSPI platform streamlines workflows and accelerates remediation, enabling our experts to focus on deep-dive testing that uncovers vulnerabilities others miss. Trusted by the top 10 U.S. banks and Fortune 500 companies worldwide, NetSPI has been driving security innovation since 2001. NetSPI is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, and available on AWS Marketplace. Follow NetSPI on LinkedIn and X.
About Synack
Synack is the AI + human penetration testing platform for continuous security validation. Sara AI Pentesting combines agentic AI with the Synack Red Team, a rigorously vetted global community of security researchers, to expand testing coverage and prove real-world exploitability. The Synack Platform gives organizations control and visibility across testing activity, validated findings and remediation status. Synack supports point-in-time and continuous penetration testing across web applications, APIs, mobile applications, cloud and host infrastructure, internal environments and AI or LLM systems. Founded by former NSA operatives, Synack has enabled nearly 10 million hours of security testing to protect critical assets across enterprise, public-sector and highly regulated environments. Synack was named a Leader and Fast Mover in the 2025 GigaOm Radar for Penetration Testing as a Service and a Leader in both the G2 Grid Report and Enterprise Grid Report for Penetration Testing, Summer 2026. Synack also received two 2026 Global InfoSec Awards: Market Leader in AI-Powered Cybersecurity and Trailblazer in PTaaS. Learn more at synack.com and on LinkedIn.
About KKR
KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com. For additional information about Global Atlantic Financial Group, please visit Global Atlantic Financial Group’s website at www.globalatlantic.com.
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