Snyk was worth $8.5 billion. The price of its employees' stock has collapsed.

Snyk advisor and former CEO Peter McKay.

John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Cybersecurity startup Snyk was valued at $8.5 billion in 2021.

The rise of new AI tools hit it hard.

The price of each Snyk share given to employees has plummeted to $1.16, a document says.

Snyk said it doesn't comment on employee share valuations.

Snyk was one of cybersecurity's brightest startup stars, worth $8.5 billion at the height of the software boom.

Now, the value of the stock it gives employees has fallen to a fraction of that, underscoring how dramatically fortunes have shifted for many software companies in the AI era.

Snyk, which is headquartered in Boston, became best-known for selling a vulnerability scanner that quickly finds bugs in code.

It was valued at $8.5 billion in a 2021 funding round and at $7.4 billion in a 2022 funding round.

Snyk has raised more than $1 billion from investors since its founding in 2015.

People with Snyk equity have been watching the value of their shares slide over the past few years, two former employees told Business Insider.

One recalled that around Snyk's peak valuation, their shares were worth over $10.

By the summer of 2025, that had declined to around $3, the other former employee said.

That figure is now down to $1.16 per share as of late August, according to an internal document.