Developers have a problem. Previously, only large companies had to worry about security, but now any startup can hold vast amounts of customer data. This means developers have to worry about platform security across the board, and often struggle with complex tools to manage security.
Now, Aikido, a small startup in Ghent, Belgium, thinks it has the answer to that dilemma. It's an open source, developer-friendly, no-nonsense security platform. And the startup just raised $17 million in Series A to further strengthen its product.
“Security tools have been around for 30 years, but I think we're the first where the buyer is the user. In other tools, the buyer is the CSO, but the user is a bad developer. We are a 'no BS' platform,'' Aikido founder and CTO Willem Delbare told TechCrunch.
He has a point.
Aikido's main competitors tend to create tools aimed more at large enterprises than at the people who actually need to deploy the tools. For example, Enterprise's platform, his Snyk, used to be similar to Aikido, but it pivoted into a larger company a while ago. Other competitors include his JIT, which caters to small and medium market customers. In the mid-market, we have Endor Labs, Guardrails, and even larger companies like Mend, Qwiet, Oxeye, Ox, Arnica, and Apiiro.
Delvalle said Aikido's main differentiators are its freemium model and aggressive open-sourcing of new products. “This allows for flexibility, speed and affordability,” he said.
The company also offers all-in-one security, flat fees, and significantly fewer notifications. “The only time we bother developers is if there's something 'real' wrong with them. We proactively triage alerts to reduce noise and false positives,” he said.
This logic seems to have worked pretty well. The company already has 3,000 small business customers. And the Series A, led by European venture firm Singular, comes less than six months after the company raised a $5 million seed round. The company has now raised a total of $22.5 million.
Another distinctive feature of Aikido is that its home base is Ghent. The security industry is dominated by Israeli and American incumbents and their veterans (the security industry's version of the “PayPal Mafia'' is called the “Checkpoint Mafia'').
Del Valle said there are certain “strategies” that U.S. and Israeli security startups should follow. Like Cisco. And they just repeat that playbook over and over again. ”
He emphasized that Aikido does not follow that pattern. “We're not building that kind of strategy. We're not a single function. If we were to be acquired, it would just be for our customer base and our bottom line. “It's not a platform for fixing feature gaps,” he said.
“These tools basically look like the inside of an F-16 cockpit. They make you feel stupid. Developers just want to solve problems and move on to building fun features. Right?'' Delvalle explained.
Delvalle said Aikido decided to hire Singular after meeting his partner, Henri Tilloy. “I think he's the first VC I've talked to in a long time who actually understood this product. When most VCs look at your company, all they see is a spreadsheet,” he says. said.
The team also includes co-founders Roeland Delrue (CRO and COO) and Felix Garriau (CMO). The company brought on Madeline Lawrence, who left her role as a partner at Peak VC to join the startup as its chief brand officer.
The round also saw participation from Notion Capital and Connect Ventures, which co-led the previous seed round.
Aikido is addressing a large market. The network security software market is expected to increase from $24.21 billion in 2023 to $27.33 billion in 2024.
At the same time, security risks are mutating and growing rapidly, with the average cost of a data breach reaching an all-time high of $4.45 million in 2023, according to UpGuard.