Imperva

Leading enterprise cybersecurity provider with strong positioning in bot management and invalid traffic detection relevant to AdTech

Imperva is a cybersecurity firm founded in 2002 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, that provides comprehensive protection for data and applications across cloud and on-premise environments. Its core product portfolio includes Web Application Firewall (WAF), DDoS protection, bot management, API security, data activity monitoring, and database security solutions. Imperva serves thousands of global enterprises across financial services, healthcare, retail, and government sectors, positioning itself as a critical infrastructure security provider. In the AdTech ecosystem, Imperva is particularly relevant through its bot management and traffic integrity solutions, which help advertisers, publishers, and ad networks detect and filter invalid traffic (IVT), ad fraud, and scraping attacks. Its acquisition of Distil Networks in 2019 significantly expanded its bot detection capabilities, making it a key player in the ad verification and brand safety space. Imperva was taken private by Thales Group in 2023 following its earlier acquisition by private equity firm Thoma Bravo in 2019. The company operates as a subsidiary of Thales, continuing to develop its cybersecurity platform while integrating with Thales's broader digital identity and security portfolio. Its relevance to AdTech stems from its role in protecting digital advertising infrastructure from automated fraud and malicious traffic.