When was Expel founded?

Expel was founded in 2016 and became a unicorn in 2021.

Where is Expel located?

Expel is headquartered in Herndon, United States. It is registered at Herndon, Virginia.

Which legal entities is Expel associated with?

Expel is associated with Expel, Inc. and 1 other.

How many employees does Expel have?

As of Mar 31, 2026, the latest employee count at Expel is 477.

Is Expel a funded company?

Expel is a funded company, having raised a total of $289M across 6 funding rounds to date. The company's 1st funding round was a $7.5M Series A round, raised on Sep 12, 2016.

How much is Expel worth?

The latest valuation of Expel is $1B as of Nov 18, 2021.

When was the latest funding round of Expel?

Expel's latest funding was a $30M Series E round on Oct 03, 2022, with participation from 6 investors.

Is Expel a Cybersecurity company?

The primary sector of Expel is Cybersecurity.

Where does Expel rank among its competitors?

Expel ranks 7th amongst 88 active competitors, of which 19 are funded. It stands 1st in terms of total funding among its competitors. The most recent competitor to raise funding was Prophet Security, which secured an undisclosed amount in Feb, 2026.

Who are the top competitors of Expel?

Expel's top competitors include Cado Security, Zafran and Prophet Security. Among them, Prophet Security secured the most recent funding round in February, 2026.

Expel - 2026 Company Profile, Team, Funding & Competitors

Expel is a series E company based in Herndon (United States), founded in 2016 by Dave Merkel, Yanek Korff and Justin Bajko. It operates as a Managed detection and response provider. Expel has raised $289M in funding from investors like Paladin Capital, CapitalG and Index Ventures, with a current valuation of $1B. The company has 88 active competitors, including 19 funded and 23 that have exited. Its top competitors include companies like Cado Security, Zafran and Prophet Security.

Company Details

Managed detection and response provider. The services offered includes managed detection and response, phishing, threat hunting, vulnerability prioritization. It also provides AI and automation powered detection coverage, threat research and SIEM coverage. The platform addresses AWS security challenges and reduces risks through automated recommendations.

Website: expel.com
Social
Phone Number: +1 **********
Registered Address: Herndon, Virginia

Key Metrics

Founded Year

2016

Location

Herndon, United States

Stage

Series E

Total Funding

$289M in 6 rounds

Latest Funding Round

Series E, Oct 03, 2022, $30M

Post Money Valuation

$1B as on Nov 18, 2021

Investors

Paladin Capital & 13 more

Ranked

7^th among 88 active competitors

Employee Count

477 as on Mar 31, 2026

Similar Companies

Cado Security & 104 more

View Expel's full profile

Expel is associated with 2 legal entities given below:

Legal Entity Name	Date of Incorporation	Revenue	Latest Employee Count	Documents
Expel, Inc. CIN: 20171038814 , United States, Active	Jan 17, 2017	-	419 (As on Dec 31, 2024)	-
EXPEL, INC. CIN: 813563342 , United States, Active	May 04, 2016	-	419 (As on Dec 31, 2024)	-

Expel has raised a total funding of $289M over 6 rounds. Its first funding round was on Sep 12, 2016. Its latest funding round was a Series E round on Oct 03, 2022 for $30M. 6 investors participated in its latest round. Expel has 14 institutional investors.

Here is the list of recent funding rounds of Expel:

Filter this list

Date of Funding	Funding Amount	Round Name	Post-Money Valuation	Revenue Multiple	Lead Investors	Other Investors
Oct 03, 2022	$30M	Series E	-	-	CapitalG, Paladin Capital	Scale Venture Partners, March Capital, Index Ventures, Battery Ventures
Nov 18, 2021	$141M	Series E	$1B	-	CapitalG, Paladin Capital	Scale Venture Partners, March Capital, Index Ventures, Cisco Investments, Greycroft, Burda Principal Investments
May 13, 2020	$50M	Series D	-	-	CapitalG	Battery Ventures, Greycroft, Index Ventures, Paladin Capital, Scale Venture Partners

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View details of Expel's funding rounds and investors

The founders of Expel are Dave Merkel, Yanek Korff and Justin Bajko.

Here are the details of Expel's key team members:

Dave Merkel: Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Expel. They serve on the board of 1 company.
Yanek Korff: Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Expel. They serve on the board of 1 company.
Contact Info: 1 email address
Justin Bajko: Co-Founder & VP, Strategy and Business Development of Expel. They serve on the board of 1 company.

Expel's Board of Directors

Expel's board has 10 active members. Shardul Shah, Dave Merkel, Yanek Korff, Justin Bajko, Gene Frantz, Ariel Tseitlin, Mourad Yesayan, David Merkel, Johanna Flower and Peter Katz are independent board members.

Here is the list of Expel's board of directors:

Name	Type	Representing	Status	Duration
Shardul Shah	Independent board member	-	Current	6y 9m
Dave Merkel	Independent board member	-	Current	6y 9m
Yanek Korff	Independent board member	-	Current	9y 6m
Justin Bajko	Independent board member	-	Current	9y 6m
Gene Frantz	Independent board member	-	Current	5y 10m
Ariel Tseitlin	Independent board member	-	Current	7y 11m
Mourad Yesayan	Independent board member	-	Current	9y 6m
David Merkel	Independent board member	-	Current	9y 6m
Johanna Flower	Independent board member	-	Current	4y 2m
Peter Katz	Independent board member	-	Current	5y 10m

View details of Expel's Founder profiles and Board Members

Expel's employee count trend

Expel has 477 employees as of Mar 26. Here is Expel's employee count trend over the years:

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Top competitors of Expel include Cado Security, Zafran and Prophet Security. Here is the list of Top 10 competitors of Expel, ranked by Tracxn score:

Rank	Company Details	Short Description	Total Funding	Investors	Tracxn Score
1st	Cado Security 2020, London (United Kingdom), Acquired	Provider of cloud investigation and response automation platform for security teams	$31.5M	CyLon, Blossom Capital & 14 others	63/100
2nd	Zafran 2022, New York City (United States), Series C	Security risk mitigation platform	$130M	Sequoia Capital, Menlo Ventures & 6 others	63/100
3rd	Prophet Security 2023, Atherton (United States), Series A	Provider of an AI SOC platform with agentic AI analyst	$41M	Accel, American Express Ventures & 2 others	62/100
4th	incident.io 2021, San Francisco (United States), Series B	Cloud based security and information management systems provider	$96.2M	Index Ventures, Insight Partners & 51 others	62/100
5th	Mandiant 2004, Milpitas (United States), Acquired	Provider of threat prioritization based cyber incident response	$70M	Kleiner Perkins, Cisco Investments & 1 others	61/100
6th	BreachRx 2017, Washington, DC (United States), Series A	Incident response platform	$23M	SYN Ventures, Ballistic Ventures & 5 others	61/100
7th	Expel 2016, Herndon (United States), Series E	Managed detection and response provider	$289M	Section Partners, New Enterprise Associates ... & 12 others	59/100
8th	Demisto 2015, Tel Aviv (Israel), Acquired	Automated incident response & forensics platform solution	$69.8M	ClearSky, Greylock & 8 others	56/100
9th	LogicHub 2016, San Francisco (United States), Acquired	Provider of AI-based security automation and orchestration solution for incident response	$15.7M	Storm Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners	54/100
10th	Confluera 2016, Palo Alto (United States), Acquired	Provider of autonomous detection and response platform	$29M	Icon Ventures, MacDonald Ventures & 8 others	53/100