Ghent-based Aikido, a software security app catering to SaaS companies, announced that it has secured €16M in a Series A round of funding from Singular.vc, Notion Capital, and Connect Ventures.
Henri Tilloy, who led the round at Singular.vc, says, “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.”
This announcement comes six months after Aikido raised $5.3M in seed funding, making it the fastest-capitalised startup in Belgian history.
The funds will help grow Aikido’s platform and expand its presence internationally, aiming to simplify security for small businesses and make it manageable for developers.
A developer-centric software security platform
Founded by Willem Delbare, Roeland Delrue and Felix Garriau, Aikido is a security platform tailored for developers and SMEs that empowers businesses with security solutions.
The platform was founded to address a problem faced by developers. “Security, like compliance, used to be for the big guys,” states co-founder Delbare “now security is a growing requirement for all companies. It is critical for SMEs to win customers and grow upmarket.”
Delbare points out the increasing demand for compliance standards like SOC2, ISO 27001, CIS, HIPAA, and the forthcoming European NIS 2 Directive. These standards are crucial, especially for software firms serving enterprises or handling sensitive data such as in healthcare and fintech.
However, meeting these requirements and handling security tasks often falls to developers, who are now expected to possess expertise in security.
Aikido offers developers a simplified security solution through an all-in-one platform that brings together all necessary code and cloud security scanners. With a freemium self-service model, developers can easily access and utilise it.
The startup says, “Aikido centralises all necessary code and cloud security scanners in one place. Created by pragmatic engineers, we put open-source solutions and the developer experience first in what we build and how we build it.”
“We focus on finding what matters, so you aren’t bothered by what doesn’t. Win customers, grow up-market, and ace compliance. Aikido makes security simple for SMEs and doable for developers without industry jargon, red tape, and frankly, BS.”
An outsider in the security industry
Aikido stands as an outsider challenger in the “tight-knit” security industry, traditionally led by established US and Israeli enterprises driven by industry veterans. This sector has its own influential groups like the “Checkpoint Mafia”, similar to the “PayPal Mafia”.
Despite being an outsider, Delbare, with experience as a long-time CTO and serial founder, draws from dissatisfaction as a customer and frustration as a developer to shape Aikido’s approach.
“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.”
“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,” says Delbare.
Since its seed round in November 2023, Aikido claims to have seen record growth. In less than a year, the company has garnered 3,000 organisational users and 6,000 individual developers, expanding at a rate of 10 new organisations daily.
A significant milestone was securing Visma, a portfolio of over 175 companies, as a client. With 30 per cent of its customer base in the US, Aikido is focused on expanding globally to assist developers in addressing security challenges.
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