Distil Networks

Distil Network's main product provided bot detection and mitigation. Publicly-traded cybersecurity company Imperva Inc. acquired Distil Networks in July 2019, integrating Distil's bot detection technology into their services.

Distil Networks, originally called Distil.it, was founded in April 2011 by Rami Essaid, Engin Akyol, and Andrew Stein, claiming to be the first website bot detection and mitigation solution of its kind. The company, formed in Arlington, Virginia, was later renamed to Distil Networks.

Initially the Distil Networks client base consisted largely of digital publishers concerned about their news content being stolen and re-used on competitors’ websites. However, due to the wide application of automation in website abuse, web application attacks, business logic attacks, and online fraud, Distil Networks soon branched into protecting other types of websites against malicious bots and threats they create.

Distil Networks was acquired by Imperva, a US-based publicly traded cybersecurity company, in July 2019. Distil was Imperva's just fifth acquisition since being founded in 2002, highlighting the growing rise of bots use in web applications and cybercrime.

Key investors in Distil Networks include Bessemer Venture Partners, Foundry Group, ff Venture Capital, Techstars, IDEA Fund Partners, Militello Capital, CIT GAP Funds, and Correlation Ventures.

Distil participated in the Class 13 - Cloud 2012 Winter cohort of Techstars and raised an estimated $59,048,000.

The company has also raised capital through seed money rounds, including individual investors contributing more than $200,000 in one week via AngelList. On May 28, 2014, the company secured $10 million in Series A funding to help fund the growth and expansion of the company. The series, led by Foundry Group and Techstars, added Ryan McInTyre of Foundry Group and David Cohen of Techstars to Distil's board of directors.

Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) led Distil's Series B funding round, which completed with $21 million USD raised. Distil Networks announced a $21 million USD Series C funding round on August 2, 2016. The Series C round included funding from Silicon Valley Bank and additional funds from Bessemer Venture Partners, Foundry Group and Techstars.

Distil Networks offered products that website owners used to block web bots and reduce click fraud, web scraping, performance problems, etc. Its bot detection technology processed real-time in-line traffic inspection to analyze more than forty attributes of each visitor, building a fingerprint to identify each bot. Distil networks offered its solutions via a Content Delivery Network (CDN), physical or virtual appliances, or a Software Development Kit (SDK) for Native Applications.