Darktrace vs SentinelOne

By valuation, Darktrace is the larger company at $5.3B versus $4.7B — a 1.1x difference. Size can also be measured by team: Darktrace employs 1000-5000 people while SentinelOne has 2800 employees.

SentinelOne has raised more in total funding at $697M, compared to Darktrace's $230M — a gap of $467M. Combined, the two companies have completed 8 known funding rounds.

Darktrace leads with an Awaira Score of 85/100, while SentinelOne sits at 76/100. That 9-point gap reflects real differences in funding, scale, and traction — it's not a vanity metric.

Darktrace was founded by Poppy Gustafsson in 2013. SentinelOne was founded by Tomer Weingarten in 2013. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

Darktrace: Darktrace is an AI cybersecurity company that applies unsupervised machine learning to detect and respond to cyber threats inside enterprise networks, email systems, cloud environments, and operational technology. The Cambridge-based company pioneered the concept of the enterprise immune system, training AI models on each organisation normal network behaviour to identify anomalies that indicate intrusion, insider threat, or ransomware activity in real time without requiring predefined threat signatures.\n\nThe company went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2021, raising approximately $230 million in its IPO after backing from Invoke Capital, Vitruvian Partners, and KKR. Darktrace reports over 9,000 enterprise customers across more than 100 countries, including significant deployments in financial services, healthcare, and critical infrastructure. The company has expanded from network detection to autonomous response capabilities through its Antigena product, which can quarantine infected systems and neutralise threats without human intervention.\n\nDarktrace competes in the AI-native cybersecurity market against CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, and Microsoft Defender, as well as against SIEM vendors including Splunk and IBM QRadar. The company valuation and public market performance have been volatile, reflecting broader uncertainty around AI cybersecurity spending cycles and questions about autonomous response effectiveness in complex enterprise environments. Its AI self-learning approach, applied consistently across network, email, cloud, and OT security, remains a distinctive architecture compared to detection-rule-based competitors, and the Poppy Gustafsson leadership profile has made Darktrace a flagship case study for UK technology entrepreneurship. SentinelOne: SentinelOne is a cybersecurity company founded in 2013 that specializes in endpoint protection and threat detection using artificial intelligence and machine learning. The company develops autonomous endpoint protection platforms designed to detect, prevent, and respond to cyberattacks in real-time. Its core product suite includes Singularity, an AI-powered platform that provides behavioral threat detection, incident response automation, and endpoint visibility across organizational networks. The company operates in the AI security category, employing machine learning models to identify previously unknown threats and malicious behaviors without relying solely on signature-based detection methods. SentinelOne's technology focuses on autonomous response capabilities, enabling systems to contain threats automatically before human intervention becomes necessary. SentinelOne went public in February 2021 on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol S. As of the latest valuation data, the company is valued at approximately $4.7 billion. The company serves enterprises across various sectors requiring robust endpoint security solutions, competing with established vendors like CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender, and Kaspersky in the crowded endpoint protection market. The company has demonstrated steady growth trajectory since its IPO, expanding its customer base and product capabilities. SentinelOne continues developing its AI-driven security platform to address evolving threats and expand market presence. SentinelOne distinguishes itself through autonomous response automation that enables endpoints to contain threats without human intervention.

Both Darktrace and SentinelOne launched in 2013. Same year, but even a few months' head start matters in AI — early movers lock in data, talent, and customer relationships fast.

Darktrace has about 1000-5000 employees; SentinelOne has about 2800. A bigger team usually means more revenue or heavier VC backing, but in AI, small teams can build at massive scale.

Yes — they're direct rivals. Both Darktrace and SentinelOne compete in AI Security, targeting many of the same buyers. If you're evaluating one, you should be looking at the other.