The newest deal comes from Defguard based in Poland.
👯 Founder(s): Robert Olejnik (CEO) and Michal Gryczka (CRO)
📅 Founding year: 2023
🏭 Industry: Cybersecurity, DevOps
💥 Problem: Organizations struggle to securely manage remote access and infrastructure while avoiding vendor lock-in and maintaining data control.
📣 Solution: Defguard offers a fully open-source platform for WireGuard® VPN and Zero Trust architecture, deployable on-premise or in the cloud.
👥 Customers: Enterprises in various industries, as well as public entities.
🎳 Team size: 2
🌱 Stage: Pre-seed
💰 Investment amount: €1.2M
🚀 Funded by: Hard2beat, ISEC, SMOK Ventures, S20 Team, with business angels: Łukasz Jesis, Piotr & Tomasz Karwatka
👁️🗨️ Investor’s perspective: Maciej Zawadziński, backing through Hard2beat, brings deep expertise in open-source scalability and product-led growth, actively supporting Defguard’s development. Łukasz Jesis, founder of Xopero – a European leader in backup and data recovery, is personally engaged in providing strategic business support.
💡 It will be spent on… Product development, international customer success, and expanding the platform based on client needs.
💬 In their own words: “We created Defguard to give organizations full control over their data & infrastructure — in a secure, flexible way, without vendor lock-in.” — Robert Olejnik, CEO
💪 Their specialty… Defguard combines open-source transparency with enterprise-grade security to manage remote access and Zero Trust infrastructure using WireGuard®. The platform is flexible, scalable, and supports both cloud and on-prem deployments.
📊 Traction: The solution is already in use by major automotive corporations, NASCAR teams, manufacturing plants, data centers and cloud providers, game developers, venture capital funds, as well as numerous government institutions and public entities across the EU.
📈 Funding so far: €1.2M
