What BotGuard OÜ does

BotGuard OÜ, operating commercially as Blackwall since its 2024 rebrand, is an Estonian private limited company headquartered in Tallinn that builds GateKeeper, a cloud-based security and traffic-management platform purpose-built for web hosting providers and cloud infrastructure operators. GateKeeper is architected as a distributed reverse-proxy cluster placed at the web traffic entry point, comprising a reverse proxy, a detection server, and a data warehouse, with integration modules for hosting and billing infrastructures. Functionally it delivers real-time L7 DDoS mitigation, adaptive Web Application Firewall (WAF), automated bot detection and filtering, anti-scraping, rate limiting, SSL certificate automation, content caching, and HTTP/3 (QUIC) and TLS 1.3 with 0-RTT support. The company reports that GateKeeper protects 2.3 million-plus websites and filters 36 percent of traffic as malicious across more than 30 countries.

Blackwall sells exclusively through a channel-partner go-to-market targeting Service & Hosting Providers — including DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS, cPanel, Plesk, and Webdock — who bundle or resell GateKeeper as either a hosting-bundle or à la carte security add-on to their end customers, supplemented by direct enterprise field sales for tier-1 hosting accounts and a product-led self-service layer via docs.blackwall.com. Commercial terms are described as dynamic and partner-flexible rather than rigidly tiered, with multi-year contracts. Hosting-provider partners reportedly achieve a 30-40 percent revenue increase per customer adopting Blackwall and 10-25 percent operational cost reduction through server-farm density optimization. In 2024 the company closed a EUR 45 million Series B led by Dawn Capital to fund growth and the broader Blackwall platform strategy.

Name

BotGuard OÜ

Legal name

BotGuard OÜ

Website

https://botguard.net

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Blackwall (formerly BotGuard OÜ) provides GateKeeper, a reverse-proxy-based bot mitigation, WAF, and traffic-management platform distributed exclusively through hosting and cloud infrastructure channel partners to protect websites across 30+ countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Bot Mitigation & Web Security

NAICS

Security Systems Services (56162), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)

akta.pro primary industry

Bot Management & Mitigation (HDADALAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Web Application Firewall (WAF) & Bot Management (ADC‑Integrated) (HDAFAHAG), DDoS Mitigation & Traffic Scrubbing (Edge/ADC‑Adjacent) (HDAFAHAJ)

Keywords

• Bot mitigation
• Web traffic protection
• Hosting security
• Bot management
• Web application firewall

Headquarters

HQ city

Tallinn

HQ country

Estonia

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Security Services Subscription (B2B): Blackwall generates recurring revenue by selling security services to Service & Hosting Providers. These providers bundle or offer à la carte security services (bot management, WAF, anti-scraping) to their end customers. Revenue is generated through commercial agreements with hosting providers, with dynamic terms allowing flexible pricing structures rather than rigid contracts.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

BotGuard OÜ (operating as Blackwall) provides GateKeeper, a scalable, high-availability security and traffic management solution engineered for web hosting providers. GateKeeper operates as an advanced reverse proxy at the web traffic entry point, performing deep traffic inspection and real-time filtering to neutralize malicious bot traffic, L7 DDoS attacks, and brute-force attempts. The platform combines bot management, Web Application Firewall, rate limiting, SSL automation, and content caching within a distributed server cluster architecture designed for integration into hosting and billing infrastructures.

Product overview

Blackwall (formerly BotGuard OÜ) offers a unified product portfolio centered on GateKeeper — a single core product that provides comprehensive web security and traffic filtering for hosting providers. GateKeeper combines advanced reverse proxy functionality with bot and attack detection, Web Application Firewall (WAF), rate limiting, SSL certificate management, and content caching as integrated capabilities within the same platform, rather than as separate add-on modules.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• GateKeeper: A scalable, high-availability security solution engineered for web hosting providers to safeguard cloud-based assets, data centers, and web clusters. Performs deep traffic inspection and filtering to neutralize malicious requests in real time.

Products and services

• GateKeeper GateKeeper is a scalable, high-availability security and traffic management solution engineered for web hosting providers. Operating at the web traffic entry point as an advanced reverse proxy, it performs deep traffic inspection and real-time filtering to neutralize malicious bot traffic, L7 DDoS attacks, brute-force attempts, and scrapers. It comprises the GateKeeper reverse proxy, a detection server, a data warehouse, and integration modules for hosting and billing infrastructures, and includes WAF, HTTP/3 (QUIC) and TLS 1.3 with 0-RTT, automated SSL provisioning, content caching, and rate limiting.

Quantifiable outcome

• 2.3M+ websites protected globally
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature12 records

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Kasada: Bot management vendor using advanced client-side detection techniques to stop credential abuse and scraping. Direct product overlap with Blackwall's bot management module; comparable stage and specialization, but Kasada sells primarily to enterprise digital businesses rather than via hosting providers.

Direct peers

• Imperva: Provides WAF, bot management, DDoS protection, and API security as a directly competitive product suite. Imperva targets enterprises and cloud application owners rather than hosting providers, but the underlying technology and threat models overlap heavily with Blackwall's GateKeeper.
• HUMAN Security: Bot management and fraud prevention platform focused on protecting applications, APIs, and digital media from sophisticated automated threats. Comparable product capability and target buyer (security-conscious digital businesses) but operates through direct enterprise sales rather than the hosting-provider channel model.
• Radware: Provides DDoS protection, WAF, and bot management solutions to enterprises and service providers. Overlaps with Blackwall on DDoS mitigation and WAF; historically stronger with carriers/hosting providers, making it one of the more direct competitive threats in the channel.
• DataDome: Specialized bot management and online fraud protection vendor competing for the same use cases (credential stuffing, scraping, account takeover). Direct overlap in product, but DataDome sells primarily into e-commerce and enterprise rather than the hosting-provider channel that Blackwall has built.

Broad incumbents

• Fastly: Edge cloud platform offering WAF, DDoS protection, and bot management alongside its CDN. Directly comparable in combining reverse-proxy edge security with WAF; Fastly's broader compute/CDN offering gives it scale advantages but is less purpose-built for the hosting-provider vertical.
• Akamai Bot Manager: Enterprise-grade bot management, WAF, and DDoS solutions sold primarily to large digital properties and CDNs. Comparable product overlap (bot detection + WAF + DDoS) but targets a different buyer (large enterprise security teams) rather than hosting providers specifically.
• Cloudflare: Operates Bot Management, WAF, and DDoS services at massive scale via its global edge network. Competes with Blackwall for the same hosting-provider and enterprise buyer, and increasingly bundles bot mitigation with CDN. Significantly larger and broader, but less specialized for the hosting-provider vertical.
• AWS Shield / AWS WAF: Native AWS security services providing DDoS protection and WAF, included in many hosting and cloud workloads. As a Blackwall customer (per the partner list) and a competitive alternative for cloud-native buyers, AWS represents both a partner opportunity and a structural threat to standalone bot-management offerings.
• Barracuda Networks: Provides WAF, DDoS protection, and bot mitigation as part of a broader security portfolio historically sold to SMBs and hosting partners. Overlaps with Blackwall at the lower end of the hosting-provider market, particularly where partners want an established incumbent brand.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about BotGuard OÜ