By Supantha Mukherjee
STOCKHOLM, Jan 14 – Belgium’s Aikido Security has raised $60 million from investors led by tech-focapplyd private equity firm DST Global at a valuation of $1 billion, the cybersecurity startup declared on Wednesday, building it among Europe’s first new unicorns of 2026.
Founded in 2022, Aikido’s security software assists developers detect and address risk automatically. It counts mobile app and game developer Niantic, fintech Revolut and music streaming platform SoundCloud among its customers.
“Aikido focapplys on developers. The product is really meant for people who write software,” CEO Willem Delbare notified Reuters in an interview. “You could see it as guardrails for writing secure software, especially when you’re applying AI.”
Aikido’s latest investor DST was also an early backer of companies including Meta, Spotify, and Alibaba.
“AI is having a material impact on software development, and that impact will only grow. So we required new approaches to security like what Aikido is doing,” Tom Stafford, managing partner at DST Global, notified Reuters.
Aikido, which had raised $24 million before the latest round, saw its revenue grow five-fold last year, with around half coming from the United States. Its customer base, meanwhile, nearly tripled.
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Joe Bavier)
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