Palo Alto Networks has snapped up Console, a two-year-old startup that builds AI agents for routine IT help desk work, in a deal worth $500 million in cash and stock, according to two people with knowledge of the terms who spoke to TechCrunch. The acquisition was officially announced on September 1, 2026, though the companies themselves kept the price tag under wraps.
Console has had a remarkably short and profitable run. Founded in 2024 by Andrei Serban — whose previous startup, code-security platform Fuzzbuzz, was acquired by Rippling — the company raised just $29 million across two rounds: a $6.2 million seed led by Thrive Capital and a $23 million Series A co-led by DST Global and Thrive. Before the sale, PitchBook pegged its valuation at $157 million, so backers including SV Angel and Abstract Ventures saw a rapid multiple on their money. In a neat twist, one of those angel investors was Nikesh Arora, the CEO of Palo Alto Networks itself.
What did the cybersecurity giant actually buy? Console’s agents handled the unglamorous plumbing of corporate IT without direct human involvement: resetting passwords, granting access to apps like Figma and Miro, and running routine troubleshooting. Its customer list included Ramp, Flock Safety, and Scale AI. Palo Alto Networks plans to fold that agentic machinery into Cortex, its AI-driven threat detection and response platform, so security teams can investigate and resolve alerts using natural language. Arora said the technology gives Cortex “the arms and legs to deliver autonomous security outcomes across the entire enterprise,” adding that security operations “can no longer be about managing dashboards and queuing tickets just to help humans work faster.” Serban framed the philosophy simply: people should be able to express an operational goal and let intelligent software handle the complexity.
The deal also reshuffles the market Console leaves behind. Its chief rival, Sequoia-backed Serval — another challenger to ServiceNow — hit a $1 billion valuation after a $75 million Series B in December 2025 and has expanded from AI tech support into HR, legal, and finance assistance. With Console absorbed into a security platform, industry watchers told TechCrunch that Serval becomes the de facto startup leader in AI-powered IT service automation.
For Palo Alto Networks, this is business as usual at an accelerated pace: Console is its seventh acquisition of 2026, according to PitchBook. Earlier this year the company picked up observability platform Chronosphere at a $3.35 billion valuation and cyber startup Koi for $400 million. The message is hard to miss — the security giant is assembling an AI workforce, one startup at a time.
