Company:Arkose Labs

---

Arkose Labs, Inc. is an American cybersecurity company headquartered in San Mateo, California. The company provides bot management, fraud deterrence, and AI agent classification software designed to distinguish between human customers, legitimate AI agents, and adversarial traffic across digital enterprise platforms.

Founded in Brisbane, Australia, in 2015, the company maintains regional operations in Brisbane, Costa Rica, Argentina, India, and the U.K.¹²

History and Funding

Arkose Labs was co-founded in 2015 by Kevin Gosschalk and Matthew Ford.¹² Gosschalk applied interactive machine vision, while Ford contributed experience in video game technology to develop dynamic, risk-based friction mechanisms rather than uniform blocking barriers.³ The company launched commercially in 2017.¹

The company has raised $114 million in venture capital across its primary funding rounds:

• Series B (2020): Closed $22 million in March 2020, led by M12 (Microsoft's venture fund), with participation from PayPal Ventures and USVP.⁴⁵
• Series C (2021): Closed $70 million in May 2021, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 alongside existing institutional investors, including Wells Fargo Strategic Capital.⁶⁷

Technology and Operations

The company's platform operates on an economic deterrence model, raising the computational cost of an attack until automated operations become unprofitable for threat actors.⁶⁸

• Passive Profiling: Evaluates incoming user sessions via behavioral biometrics and device telemetry, including device identification techniques used to detect ban evasion, account sharing, and multi-accounting.⁹
• Adaptive Challenges: Serves high-risk traffic proprietary 3D visual puzzles derived from the FunCaptcha framework (Arkose MatchKey). The challenges rely on spatial reasoning and logical pairing rather than text recognition to resist automated computer vision solvers.¹⁰¹¹
• Progressive Complexity: Scales algorithmic complexity dynamically when automated scripts attempt to solve challenges, increasing the computing power required to execute large-scale attacks.⁹

AI Agent Classification

In 2026, the company introduced Agent Trust Manager as part of its unified Arkose Titan platform, extending its core architecture beyond binary bot-or-human detection to agentic traffic.¹²¹³ The system categorizes incoming sessions into three distinct populations:

• Self-disclosing Agents: Automated systems that identify themselves through established disclosure standards and cryptographic verification methods.¹²¹⁴
• Non-disclosing Agents: AI assistants and agentic browsers acting on a user's behalf without declaring an agent identity, detected via non-human identity signals and behavioral biometrics.¹²¹⁴
• Adversarial Traffic: Malicious bots, scrapers, and automated fraud networks acting against a platform's security policies.¹⁴

Classification is behavioral rather than static: sessions are continuously evaluated for "intent drift," reclassifying traffic if an authorized agent strays outside its declared scope. Enforcement policies are configured across tiers such as Allow, Monitor, Challenge, Throttle, and Block, customizable per endpoint and population.¹²¹³

Threat Vectors Addressed

The company's software suite targets several categories of automated and human-assisted online abuse, including account takeover and credential stuffing, new account fraud, human fraud farms, promo and bonus abuse, SMS toll fraud, card testing, and MFA compromise via adversary-in-the-middle proxies.¹⁵⁹

Threat Intelligence and Strategic Alliances

Arkose Labs operates an internal research unit, the Arkose Cyber Threat Intelligence Research (ACTIR) division, which tracks automated attack infrastructure, underground exploit sales, and cybercriminal syndicates.¹⁶

In December 2023, ACTIR assisted Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit in a joint legal and technical operation disrupting Storm-1152, a Vietnam-based cybercrime ring that built and sold automated bypass tools and generated hundreds of millions of fraudulent Microsoft accounts.¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹ In April 2025, Arkose Labs expanded its enterprise partnership with Microsoft, integrating natively with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Entra External ID.²⁰²¹²²

Media Commentary and Press Coverage

Arkose Labs executives, including founder and CEO Kevin Gosschalk, are frequently cited in security and business media on topics such as bot management, AI-driven fraud, and agentic-AI threats.³²³

Industry Recognition and Awards

• Inc. 5000: Listed on the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies for five consecutive years, including 2021 through 2026 appearances.²⁴²⁵
• Deloitte Technology Fast 500: Ranked on the North American Fast 500 list for five consecutive years (2021–2025), including No. 142 in 2023 (1,005% growth) and No. 320 in 2025.²⁶²⁷²⁸
• G2 Grid Ratings: Named a Leader across Bot Detection & Mitigation and Fraud Detection grids for multiple consecutive quarters, with top rankings for Ease of Setup and Ease of Administration.²⁹¹¹³⁰
• Forrester Research: Named a "Strong Performer" in The Forrester Wave: Bot and Agent Trust Management Software, Q2 2026, and previously a Strong Performer in the Q2 2022 Bot Management Wave.³¹³²
• Gartner: Recognized as a "Cool Vendor" in Identity and Access Management and Fraud Detection (2020).³³³⁴
• TIME Magazine: Named Arkose Bot Manager to its 200 Best Inventions of 2023 list, in the Apps & Software category.³⁵³⁶

References

1. Arkose Labs Raises $22M For Anti-Fraud Platform After 400% Revenue Growth in 2019 — Crunchbase News ↩ ↩² ↩³
2. Brisbane-founded Arkose Labs secures strategic investment from PayPal — Startup Daily ↩ ↩²
3. Kevin Gosschalk | Founder and CEO – Arkose Labs — Forbes Technology Council ↩ ↩²
4. Arkose Labs Raises $22 Million in Series B Round Led by M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund — GlobeNewswire ↩
5. Arkose Labs authenticates $22m series B round — Global Venturing ↩
6. Arkose Labs Raises $70 Million Led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 to Bankrupt the Business of Fraud — GlobeNewswire ↩ ↩²
7. Series C – Arkose Labs — Crunchbase ↩ Letter from the CEO: Announcing Our Series C Funding Round — Security Boulevard ↩
8. Arkose Labs Notches $22M In Microsoft Venture Fund-Led Round — PYMNTS ↩ ↩² ↩
9. Welcome to Arkose Titan — Arkose Labs Developer Docs ↩
10. Arkose Labs Secures Leadership Position in G2 Winter Customer Relationship Index for Enterprise Fraud Prevention — Business Wire ↩ ↩²
11. Arkose Agent Trust Manager Helps Companies Accelerate Revenue by Classifying and Controlling Agentic Traffic — Business Wire ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
12. Arkose Labs launches agent trust manager for Titan — IT Brief Australia ↩ ↩²
13. Arkose Agent Trust Manager: Classifying Agentic Traffic — Efficiently Connected ↩ ↩²
14. Why Fortune 500 Enterprises Choose Arkose Labs — Arkose Labs ↩
15. Storm-1152: A Continuing Battle Against Cybercrime — Arkose Labs Blog ↩
16. Bold Action Against Fraud: Disrupting Storm-1152 — Microsoft Security Insider ↩
17. Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit Overview — Microsoft DCU ↩
18. Storm-1152: A Continuing Battle Against Cybercrime — Security Boulevard ↩
19. Arkose Labs Expands Strategic Relationship with Microsoft, Including Expanding Its Services to Microsoft Azure — Business Wire ↩
20. Fraud Protection Integration – Microsoft Entra External ID — Microsoft Learn ↩
21. Building defense in depth: Simplifying identity security with new partner integrations — Microsoft Tech Community ↩
22. Arkose Labs — Grokipedia ↩
23. Arkose Labs Named to Inc. 5000 List of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies for Fifth Year — Business Wire ↩
24. Arkose Labs Ranks as One of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies on the 2025 Inc. 5000 List — Business Wire ↩
25. Arkose Labs Listed Among Fastest-Growing Companies in North America on the 2025 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ for Fifth Year in a Row — Arkose Labs ↩
26. Arkose Labs Ranked Number 142 Fastest-Growing Company in North America on the 2023 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ — Arkose Labs ↩
27. Deloitte Unveils 2025 North America Technology Fast 500 Rankings — Deloitte ↩
28. Arkose Labs marks three consecutive quarters as Leader in G2's Bot Detection and Mitigation Grid® Report — PR Newswire ↩
29. Arkose Labs Rated G2 Winter 2025 Leader — Arkose Labs ↩
30. Bot and Agent Trust Management: Arkose Labs Named a Forrester Wave™ Strong Performer — Arkose Labs Blog ↩
31. Strong Performer in New Bot Management Report — Arkose Labs ↩
32. Arkose Labs Recognized as a Gartner Cool Vendor in IAM and Fraud Detection — GlobeNewswire ↩
33. Gartner Names 4 Cool Vendors in Identity and Access Management and Fraud Detection — Solutions Review ↩
34. Arkose Labs Named to TIME's List of Best Inventions 2023 — Business Wire ↩
35. Arkose Bot Manager: The 200 Best Inventions of 2023 — TIME ↩