Aikido, a no BS security platform for developers and SMEs, announced it has raised $17 million in Series A funding led by Singular.vc, with participation from Notion Capital and Connect Ventures. This funding round comes six months after Aikido raised $5.3 million in seed funding, making it the fastest-capitalized startup in Belgian history.
Built by serial entrepreneur and CTO Willem Delbare, Aikido was created out of frustration with clunky and legacy security tools that waste developers’ time. And the platform centralizes all necessary code and cloud security scanners in one place, making security more accessible for SMEs and doable for developers without industry jargon or red tape.
Aikido makes this easier with an all-in-one platform that combines essential security features. Its simple UI and freemium self-service model enable developers to easily manage security and function as security engineers.
Launched in April 2023, Aikido is used by over 3,000 organizations and 6,000 developers. And the company’s rapid growth includes a recent win with Visma, which chose Aikido to secure its portfolio of 175+ companies.
With 30% of the customers in the US, Aikido is also eyeing the international market, helping developers and SMEs worldwide get security done. And the new funding round will be used to deepen the platform and push Aikido onto the global stage.
KEY QUOTES:
“Security, like compliance, used to be for the big guys, but now it’s a growing requirement for all companies. It’s critical for SMEs to win customers and grow upmarket, but the security burden falls on developers’ shoulders.”
“Security has long been dominated by established players. We’re outsiders here. I’m building Aikido from the experience of an unsatisfied customer and a frustrated developer. Our promise is straightforward security for developers and SMEs.”
– Willem Delbare
“Aikido has an incredibly unique approach to security. It’s simple, leverages open-source, and it’s easy to set up and use, yet it ticks off the boxes of company compliance and security requirements in one go.”
– Henri Tilloy, who led the round at Singular.vc
