Palo Alto Networks paid $500M for Thrive-backed Console, sources say
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Palo Alto Networks acquired Console, a two-year-old startup using AI agents to automate routine IT help desk tasks, for $500 million in cash and stock, according to two sources. The deal was announced Tuesday without terms, but Console had raised $29 million since its 2024 founding from investors including Thrive Capital and DST Global. Before the sale, Console was valued at $157 million, and Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora had participated as an angel investor. Palo Alto plans to integrate Console into its Cortex platform to enable natural-language investigation and resolution of security alerts. Console was founded by Andrei Serban, who previously sold code-security startup Fuzzbuzz to Rippling, and its customers included Ramp, Flock Safety, and Scale AI. The startup competed with Serval, a ServiceNow challenger valued at $1 billion after a Sequoia-led round. This acquisition is Palo Alto Networks' seventh in 2026, following other deals like Chronosphere and Koi.
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