Cloudflare Acquires Zaraz to Boost Website Speed and Security Without Sacrificing Privacy

Rhea-AI Summary

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) has acquired Zaraz, a company specializing in optimizing website performance and security by managing third-party tools. This marks Cloudflare's first acquisition of a company built on its developer platform, Cloudflare Workers. The transaction aims to enhance website speed and protect user privacy by reducing the reliance on multiple third-party services. Both companies express excitement about the potential for innovation and performance improvements in the digital space.

Positive

• Acquisition of Zaraz enhances Cloudflare's technology suite.
• Potential for improved website speed and security.
• Strategic alignment with Cloudflare Workers fosters innovation.

Negative

• None.

Milestone transaction marks Cloudflare’s first acquisition of a company built on its own developer platform, Workers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, today announced that it has acquired Zaraz, a company that has developed technology to speed up and secure websites by reducing the impact of third-party marketing and analytics tools. Zaraz is the first company Cloudflare has acquired built on its own technology, Cloudflare Workers.

“Thousands of applications have been built on Workers, and it’s been phenomenal to see the impact and innovation that it can bring at every level of an organization from developers to CIOs. We truly believe that the next billion-dollar company can and will be built on Cloudflare Workers,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “We were impressed by how the team at Zaraz used Cloudflare Workers in a unique way to help businesses get the insights they need, while delivering the lightning performance consumers expect. We’re thrilled to have them join the team, and are excited to keep investing in the developers that build on our platform.”

Today, many websites use third-party tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and Hubspot to help businesses gather critical information about their online visitors or automate critical tasks. According to WebAlmanac data, the median website in 2021 uses 21 third-party solutions on mobile and 23 on desktop and that number can be significantly higher. Despite businesses investing time and resources to optimize their websites, the use of these third-party tools can slow down the performance of their sites and create additional security risks.

With Zaraz, companies can run as many third-party tools as they need, without slowing down their website, compromising their security, or sacrificing their customers’ privacy. Zaraz uses Cloudflare Workers to replace the multiple network requests of each tool with one single request, effectively transforming a messy web of extensions into a single lightweight application. Not only does this improve the browsing experience, but it will also give customers the ability to control what data they send to a third-party, allowing them to protect their users’ privacy. Zaraz also helps to keep sites secure by preventing malicious code from entering websites by not running third-party tools on the browser.

“We couldn’t have built Zaraz without the global scale, speed, and flexibility provided by Cloudflare Workers,” said Yair Dovrat, co-founder and CEO of Zaraz. “Using Workers meant that we were able to optimize Zaraz for performance and security, something traditional tag managers couldn’t do. We’re excited to join Cloudflare’s team so that we can make a difference across the entire Internet, making it faster, better, and safer for everyone.”

To learn more, please check out the resources below:

• Zaraz Product blog
• Zaraz Technical blog

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc. (www.cloudflare.com / @cloudflare) is on a mission to help build a better Internet. Cloudflare’s suite of products protect and accelerate any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare have all web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Cultures 2018 list and ranked among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company in 2019. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Cloudflare has offices in Austin, TX, Champaign, IL, New York, NY, San Jose, CA, Seattle, WA, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Lisbon, London, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “explore,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our technological development, our reputation and performance in the market, general market trends, our plans and objectives for integration of Zaraz, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by our CEO and others. Our actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on November 5, 2021, as well as other filings that we may make from time to time with the SEC.

The forward-looking statements made in this press release relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

© 2021 Cloudflare, Inc. All rights reserved. Cloudflare, the Cloudflare logo, and other Cloudflare marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Cloudflare, Inc. in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. All other marks and names referenced herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211208005177/en/

Daniella Vallurupalli

press@cloudflare.com

Source: Cloudflare, Inc.

FAQ

What is Cloudflare's recent acquisition?

Cloudflare recently acquired Zaraz, a company focused on optimizing website performance and security.

How does Zaraz improve website performance?

Zaraz uses Cloudflare Workers to manage third-party tools efficiently, reducing the number of network requests.

What is the significance of this acquisition for Cloudflare?

This acquisition marks Cloudflare's first acquisition of a company built on its own technology platform, enhancing its product offerings.

What benefits does Zaraz provide to companies?

Zaraz helps companies run third-party tools without compromising website speed, security, or user privacy.

What are the expectations for Cloudflare after acquiring Zaraz?

Cloudflare expects to enhance innovation and performance across its platform by integrating Zaraz's technology.