Ghent-based Aikido lands $17M Series A to bring it’s ‘no BS’ security platform for developers to SMEs world-wide
Founded by serial entrepreneur and CTO Willem Delbare, Aikido was created out of frustration with clunky, legacy security tools that “waste developers’ time”
Ghent-based Aikido, the get-it-done security platform for developers and SMEs, has raised $17M in fresh Series A funds from Singular.vc, joined by Notion Capital and Connect Ventures.
The round comes a mere 6 months after Aikido raised $5.3M in seed funding, making Aikido the fastest-capitalized startup in Belgian history. The funds will be used to expand the platform and push Aikido onto the international stage to make security simple for SMEs and doable for developers.
Aikido was founded because developers have a problem.
Security, like compliance, used to be for the big guys. Now security is a growing requirement for all companies. It is critical for SMEs to win customers and grow upmarket.
notes co-founder Willem Delbare
Delbare is referencing the number of compliance standards such as SOC2, ISO 27001, CIS, HIPAA, and the upcoming European NIS 2 Directive that have now become baseline requirements for software companies, especially for companies selling to the enterprise segment or dealing with sensitive data, like the health and fintech sectors.
But growing compliance requirements and security work fall onto developers’ shoulders, who are now expected to function as security experts.
Aikido simplifies security for developers with an all-in-one platform that combines all necessary code and cloud security scanners in one place. It has a simple UI with a freemium self-service model so developers can help themselves.
Aikido has an incredibly pragmatic and unique approach to security. It’s simple, leverages open-source, it’s easy to set up and use for developers; yet it ticks off the boxes of their company compliance and security requirements in one go.
notes Henri Tilloy, who led the round at Singular.vc
An outsider in an established industry
They are an outsider challenger in the established tight-knit security industry. Security has long since been dominated by US and Israeli enterprises led by industry veterans. This industry ingroup can be seen in the “Checkpoint Mafia” for example, the security sector’s own version of the “PayPal Mafia” (link).
While an outsider, Delbare has years of experience working with legacy security tools as a long-time CTO and serial founder. He is building Aikido from the experience of an unsatisfied customer and a frustrated developer
I wasted countless hours on irrelevant security alerts as a CTO. These legacy security platforms eat up developer time and honestly, they make you feel dumb.
adds co-founder Willem Delbare
Developers are so swamped with complexity and false alerts, that they stop checking them all together.
All I want is to get the fix, make sure we are safe, and get back to my code. I had to become a security expert instead.
The company has experienced record growth since their seed round last November. Live for under 1 year, Aikido is used by 3k organizations and 6k individual developers, growing at 10 new organizations per day.
Aikido’s rapid growth includes a recent win with Visma, which chose Aikido to secure its portfolio of 175+ companies. With 30% of its customers in the US, Aikido aims for further international expansion to help developers get security done.
