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Mapping cybersecurity companies in SEE

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Web 4.0, the next big leap in the tech world, which aims to connect and process data automatically and could replace Zoom calls with metaverse meetings, could also bring a new series of risks – cyber risks. Worldwide, developers are responsible for building tech products and helping digitize traditional systems but they aren’t necessarily in charge of making them secure as well.

Here is where software companies that offer cybersecurity solutions, following the cyber-steps of the likes of Romanian Bitdefender, come into the picture. This is also what ignited our mapping of top cybersecurity startups in SEE. We aim to showcase young startups, as well as some in a later stage of development. 

This is only the beginning of mapping the regional ecosystem, so feel free to send us an email with other cybersecurity startups to add to the list – [email protected].

Evolution and trends driving the cybersecurity market

The global cybersecurity market value size is growing from over €130B, which is expected this year, to over €300B by 2026. Growth factors include the rise of cyber attacks, especially in the health and governmental verticals; the rapid development of the work-from-home trend; cloud and data center vulnerability, and more people utilizing the internet each year. 

Cybersecurity or computer security means protecting everything connected to computer systems and networks from any type of breach that can damage data or even misdirect it. Several trends are influencing the rise of the cybersecurity sector, including:

  • The implementation of ethical AI to detect, prevent, and counter cyberattacks as humans cannot have the ability to assess the information at such a high speed. 
  • Kubernetes security, which might witness a break this year. The open-source platform was launched by Google seven years ago and it automates processes in the management of containerized applications.
  • The rise of crypto also sees the crypto security space blooming to counter attacks and scams. 
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cybersecurity

*Top cybersecurity startups in Romania*

Name: CODA Intelligence

Founders: Bogdan Calapod, Cristian Sandescu, Mihnea Calin, Octavian Grigorescu

Solution: Their solution offers an AI-driven, cloud-agnostic vulnerability management platform that makes cybersecurity affordable for SMEs and their customers. IT assets are assessed for new or existing threats and the system matures over time. 

Launch/funding: 2016 – €800K 

 

Name: CyberEDU

Founders: Florina Dumitrache, Andrei Avadanei

Solution: They offer a platform that can bridge theory and practice. The team’s mission is to improve cybersecurity skills worldwide by supporting professionals, companies, and universities to learn cybersecurity solutions using real-life scenarios.

Launch/funding: 2020 – N/A

 

Name: CyberSwarm 

Founder: Raneti Mihai 

Solution: Their full cybersecurity solution offers both hardware and customized software for IoT, which along with the AI component it becomes a thinking cybersecurity device. It develops Memristor technology for AI and cybersecurity applications that defend themselves against cyber attacks.

Launch/funding: 2017 – N/A

 

Name: Cybourn

Founders: Ashwin Jayaram, Daniel McKee, Ioan Istrate (Romanian)

Solution: Their solution offers monitoring services, threat detection, risk assessment, and incident response. They use ML and automation orchestration to detect cyberattacks. 

Launch/funding: 2018 – N/A

 

Name: Cyscale 

Founders: Andrei Milas, Manuela Ticudean, Ovidiu Cical

Solution: Their solution, which is a cloud management, security, and compliance tool, is to make sure any cloud product is secure through automated processes. 

Launch/funding: 2019 – €550K

 

Name: Enersec Technology

Founders: Bogdan Matache, Razvan Codreanu 

Solution: The team offers a security operation center as a service for IoT consumers. Their services cover planning, assessing, and operating to secure businesses. 

Launch/funding: 2013 – N/A

 

Name: Modex

Founders: Alin Iftemi, Dragos Rautu, Mihai Ivascu

Solution: Their solution is developing cybersecurity products with the help of blockchain technology. Their goal is to help businesses protect their digital data without prior knowledge of this niche technology. 

Launch/funding: 2017/ N/A

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Name: OutThink

Founder: Flavius Plesu

Solution: Their solution is a cybersecurity human risk management platform. The SaaS platform helps identify, measure human risk, and encourage behavior change by combining human intelligence with data that reveals risk patterns.   

Launch/funding: 2019 – €3.5M

 

Name: Siscale AI 

Founder: Petrica Ruta

Solution: Their solution, the Arcanna AI, aids cybersecurity professionals to scale their operations. The system learns continuously to help teams deal with threats and automate tasks. 

Launch/funding: 2015 – €700K

 

Name: TypingDNA

Founders: Adrian Gheara, Cristian Tamas, Raul Popa

Solution: Their solution offers typing biometrics authentication as a service, which allows companies to recognize people by their typing. Their tool protects accounts and comes with a flexible API and low-code integration.

Launch/funding: 2016/€8.4M 

cybersecurity

*Top cybersecurity startups in Bulgaria*

Name: Claroty

Founders: Amir Zilberstein, Benny Porat, Galina Antova (Bulgarian)

Solution: Their industrial cybersecurity solution protects OT (industrial), IoT (enterprise), and IoMT (healthcare) assets from attacks through secure remote access. 

Launch/funding: 2015 – €590M

 

Name: LogSentinel

Founders: Bozhidar Bozhanov, Anton Gerunov, Kalina Konstantinova* 

*The founders stepped down and the company is now led by Asen Kehayov

Solution: Their solution aims to bridge all the different security tools which are available on the market into one system. The goal is to simplify processes with the help of blockchain and ML targeting SMEs. 

Launch/funding: 2017 – €1M

 

Name: DeepCode (acquired by Snyk)

Founders: Boris Paskalev, Martin Vechev, Veselin Raychev

Solution: DeepCode solution presents an AI system that can learn from different programs and offer code security and reliability issues. While Snyk offers developers a security platform that can easily integrate with a professional workflow.

Launch/funding: 2016 – €4.7M

*Top cybersecurity startups in Greece*

Name: Hack the Box

Founders: Aris Zikopoulos, Haris Pylarinos, James Hooker

Solution: Their solution provides cybersecurity training through a fun platform. Users can test their skills with other community members and machines, simulating real-world scenarios. 

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Launch/funding: 2017 – €13M

*Top cybersecurity startups in Croatia* 

Name: ReversingLabs

Founders: Mario Vuksan, Tomislav Pericin

Solution: Their solution specializes in threat detection solutions in the software supply chain. Developers and enterprise users can prevent attacks automatically. 

Launch/funding: 2009 – €74M

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Elena is an Innovation Reporter at The Recursive with 10+ years of experience as a freelance writer based in Bucharest, Romania. Her mission is to report internationally on the amazing progress of the local startup ecosystem while bringing into focus topics such as diversity in business cultures and women in tech; mental health, work-life balance, and the future. Of what? Everything! As a former solopreneur and a full-time mom, she strives to learn something new every day to share with the world. #nevernotlearning