Palo Alto Networks acquired the startup Console for 500 million dollars for agentic IT helpdesk automation
Palo Alto Networks acquired the startup Console, which uses AI agents to automate IT helpdesk tasks, for 500 million dollars. This is the seventh acquisition by the company in 2026, and Console will be integrated into the Cortex platform.
Palo Alto Networks paid 500 million dollars in cash and stock to acquire the startup Console, which uses AI agents to automate routine IT helpdesk tasks such as password resets, granting access to applications (such as Figma or Miro), and basic troubleshooting without direct human involvement. The companies have not officially confirmed the terms of the deal; two sources familiar with the transaction provided the amount to TechCrunch.
Andrei Serban founded the startup Console two years before the acquisition, shortly after selling his previous company Fuzzbuzz (a code security platform) to Rippling. Since its founding in 2024, Console has raised a total of 29 million dollars in two funding rounds – 6.2 million dollars in a seed round led by Thrive Capital and 23 million dollars in a Series A co-led by DST Global and Thrive. Before the sale, Console was valued at 157 million dollars according to PitchBook, so the acquisition delivered a quick multiple on investment for investors (including SV Angel, Abstract Ventures, and Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, who invested in the startup as an angel investor). Customers of Console included Ramp, Flock Safety, and Scale AI.
Console will be integrated into the Cortex platform, which uses AI to detect and neutralize security threats. According to a statement by Nikesh Arora, the agentic functionality of Console is intended to give the Cortex platform “arms and legs to deliver autonomous security outcomes across the entire enterprise” – security teams will thus be able to investigate and resolve alerts using natural language.
Console competed primarily with the startup Serval, another challenger to ServiceNow, which reached a valuation of 1 billion dollars following a 75 million dollar Series B round led by Sequoia last December. According to one investor who is not affiliated with Serval, the acquisition of Console leaves Serval as the leader in the category of startups automating IT service management. This is the seventh acquisition by Palo Alto Networks in 2026, followed by the earlier purchases of the observability platform Chronosphere (a valuation of 3.35 billion dollars) and the cybersecurity startup Koi (400 million dollars).
Why it matters
The acquisition shows how major cybersecurity vendors are combining AI agents for automating IT tasks with security platforms – integration into Cortex is intended to enable security teams to resolve incidents using natural language instead of manual interventions. For the IT service management market, this narrows the field of independent startups competing with ServiceNow, as Console has disappeared as one of the players through acquisition and the startup Serval remains the main independent competitor to watch.
Relevant practical impact
What this means
For a business
Palo Alto Networks continues its aggressive acquisition strategy (its seventh acquisition in 2026) and is expanding the Cortex platform with agentic IT helpdesk automation, changing the competitive landscape for IT service management vendors such as ServiceNow and the startup Serval.
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