F5 To Acquire CalypsoAI For GenAI Security Push

The $180 million deal aims to boost AI security on the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform, the company says.

F5 announced Thursday it plans to acquire AI security vendor CalypsoAI for $180 million.

The deal, which mainly consists of cash, is expected to close during the fourth quarter of F5’s fiscal 2025, ended Sept. 30.

[Related: F5 Unleashes AI Assistant To Ease Operations Burden For NetOps, SecOps, DevOps]

The planned acquisition aims to boost AI security on the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform, the company said.

CalypsoAI, which was founded in 2018, is a “pioneer” in the area of enterprise AI security, F5 said in a news release.

Key capabilities offered by CalypsoAI include real-time protection against threats targeting AI applications and models, such as prompt injection and jailbreaking, according to F5.

Other key functionality includes guardrails for detection and prevention of leakage of sensitive data as well as policy violations, F5 said.

The deal follows acquisitions by F5 earlier this year including agentic-powered security startup Fletch in June and real-time network observability vendor MantisNet in August.

In an interview with CRN in March, F5 CEO François Locoh-Donou pointed to the widespread impacts of AI on how enterprises are handling their IT and security obligations.

For instance, the massive adoption of AI has led enterprises to get “smarter” about where to put their application workloads, prompting a new cloud repatriation movement, Locoh-Donou said.