Belgian cybersecurity company Aikido Security NV today announced that it has raised $60 million in new funding at a $1 billion valuation to enhance its unified platform for code, cloud and runtime security and introduce autonomous self-securing software.

Founded in 2022, Aikido was built to unify security across the entire software lifecycle, embedding security directly into how applications are built, deployed and run.

Aikido provides a unified application security platform that brings together multiple security disciplines, including static and dynamic application security testing, software composition analysis for open-source dependencies, secrets detection, cloud security checks and runtime protection, into a single interface. Doing so allows organizations to replace fragmented toolchains with a simpler, more manageable approach to software security.

The company’s platform emphasizes signal over noise, in that instead of overwhelming teams with thousands of low-priority findings, it identifies issues that are actually exploitable in real-world conditions. The platform correlates vulnerabilities with application context, usage and exposure to allow teams to prioritize fixes based on real risk rather than theoretical severity scores.

Aikido also has a focus on being developer-first by integrating natively with source code repositories, continuous integration/continuous delivery or CI/CD pipelines and cloud environments. Security findings are surfaced in the tools developers already use, with clear guidance on how to remediate issues quickly.

“How software is built today looks nothing like it did even a few years ago, but most security tooling is still anchored to the past,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Willem Delbare. “As build cycles collapse from months to minutes, security needs to evolve. It must be continuous, adaptive and autonomous, securing software as a dynamic system.”

The new funding comes after a year in which Aikido has seen rapid growth, including times revenue growth and nearly three-times customer growth, with more than 100,000 teams using the platform globally. Notable Aikido customers include the Football Association Premier League Ltd., Niantic Inc., Revolut Ltd. and SoundCloud Global Ltd. & Co. KG.

The $1 billion valuation on the Series B round also makes Aikido the fastest ever European cybersecurity company to reach unicorn status. The round was led by DST Global LP, with PSG Equity, Notion Capital Management LLP and Singular Labs Inc. also participating.

“The Aikido team combines security expertise with a clear engineering-first mindset — treating security as engineering, not an afterthought,” said Tom Stafford, co-founder and managing partner of DST Global. “Aikido enables its customers to secure their code, cloud and runtime in one central system, whilst finding and fixing vulnerabilities automatically.”

Photo: Aikido Security