Work doesn't happen inside a perimeter anymore. It happens across home networks, coffee shops, airport lounges, SaaS apps, AI agents, and a thousand devices that were never designed to be managed. Every one of those moments starts the same way: a DNS lookup, before a connection is ever made.
That's the layer we've built our company around. Not because it's fashionable, but because it's the only point in the stack that sees everything, everywhere, before anything happens. We know DNS is no longer a supporting utility bolted onto a security stack. It's the foundation the rest of the stack should be built on.
How we got started
DNSFilter exists because our co-founder and CEO, Ken Carnesi, got fed up. He and Chief Architect Brian Gillis were working with DNS security products that were overpriced, outdated, or just didn't hold up under real use. Rather than settle for something that didn't work well enough for their own clients, they decided to build the thing they actually wanted to trust.
The goal was straightforward, even if the execution wasn't. Build the most effective DNS filter on the market, one that blocked more threats than anything else out there, without sacrificing ease of use or the kind of support that actually picks up the phone.
That founding instinct, that the existing options weren't good enough and something better was possible, is still the reason the company exists. It's just aimed at a much bigger target now.
What started as a single, sharply focused product has grown into something broader, because the problem it was solving grew too.
2026
We bring it all together. LUMINATE by DNSFilter™ launches as a single platform built on a DNS-first policy engine, uniting Advanced Filtering, Behavior Analytics, AI Governance and Controls, Encryption & Privacy, and Threat Intelligence, including the capabilities from Guardian and Zorus, into one coherent system instead of five disconnected point products.
2025
We acquire Zorus, bringing advanced behavior analytics and shadow IT visibility into the fold.
2024
We win a Global Infosec Award for Protective DNS, recognition for the NSA/CISA-aligned approach we'd been building toward for years.
2023
A Series A extension brings in another $15 million to keep building toward a broader platform vision.
2022
We acquire Guardian, a privacy-protecting firewall for iOS and Android, extending our DNS-first approach to mobile and personal devices.
2021
We raise a $33.5 million Series A from Insight Partners and Arthur Ventures, one of the largest cybersecurity Series A rounds of the year.
2019-2020
The team triples in size and we build out Roaming Clients, extending protection beyond the traditional network edge, right as remote work stopped being optional for the rest of the world.
2018
We acquire Webshrinker, the engine that still powers our threat categorization and efficacy today.
2017
Our first outside investor comes on board, the earliest signal that this wasn't just a niche idea.
2016
Our first customer proves the thesis: a better DNS security product was not just possible, it was necessary.
2015
DNSFilter is founded by Ken Carnesi and Brian Gillis, with a simple mandate: build the best DNS filter on the market.
Our platform - LUMINATE by DNSFilter™ is what happens when you take the DNS-first idea seriously enough to build an entire platform on it instead of a single product.
The thinking behind it is simple: security shouldn't be a pile of tools a customer has to stitch together and hope they align. It should follow the actual journey a user, a device, or now an AI agent takes throughout the day, from the first DNS request onward, with visibility and control that stay consistent whether someone's on the corporate network, working from home, or an autonomous agent is making a decision on their behalf.
We think about the DNS layer as a security service edge: a single, forward-deployed vantage point that every connection has to pass through first. That's the layer we've built our company on for eleven years, and it's the layer we think the rest of the industry is only starting to take seriously now.
Reviews
We invest heavily in making DNSFilter genuinely easy to work with, in responsive support and great documentation because DNS-first security only works if people actually adopt it.
Our recognition from G2, Capterra, Gartner Peer Insights, and CRN reflects that: High Performer, Most Implementable, Best Usability, Best Relationship, Best Results, and Momentum Leader across DNS and web security categories.
We decided to keep it simple. Straightforward. As an essential tool, DNSFilter is named for exactly what it does. We filter DNS requests, sorting the good from the bad to help our users get through their work days feeling more secure.
