Add preferred source
Italian cybersecurity startup Exein has raised $270 million in a funding round led by Headline, with participation from the European Investment Bank, valuing the company at $1.7 billion. The Rome-based firm, founded in 2018 by CEO Gianni Cuozzo, specializes in embedded security for Physical AI systems including industrial robots, autonomous vehicles, drones, and medical devices. Its valuation has grown thirtyfold in two years. Exein’s products Pulsar and Photon operate at the kernel level of devices, blocking attacks before malicious code executes. The company claims to secure over 1.5 billion devices daily and is training a foundational AI model for physical security, expected in early 2027. The new capital will fund mergers and acquisitions, hiring, and expansion in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific, which already account for half of revenue. Exein also stands to benefit from the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act, which mandates security-by-design standards for connected products.
Key Elements
Exein, a Rome-based startup focused on securing the firmware inside industrial machinery and connected devices, has closed a $270 million funding round that values the company at $1.7 billion, making it Europe’s most valuable hardware cybersecurity firm.
The round was led by global investment fund Headline, with participation from institutional investors including the European Investment Bank. The company announced the deal on Tuesday, though TechCrunch reported the news a day earlier.
The new valuation represents a thirtyfold increase in just two years, and more than a doubling since Exein secured a mix of equity and debt in December 2025 following its Series C earlier that year. The company said the round was significantly oversubscribed.
Founded in 2018 by CEO Gianni Cuozzo, Exein began with a mission to fix vulnerabilities in industrial firmware. The company now operates from offices in Germany, the United States, and Taiwan, with roughly forty employees spread across three continents.
Its core thesis has evolved from IoT security to what the industry now calls Physical AI – autonomous systems driven by <a href="https://bitcomme.com/although-artificial-intelligence-ai-is-rapidly-spreading-to-corporate-sites-there-is-no-clear-cha/” title=”Although artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly spreading to corporate sites, there is no clear cha..”>artificial intelligence that interact with the real world. That category spans industrial robots, self-driving vehicles, drones, medical devices, energy infrastructure, and aerospace systems.
“The concept of Exein is that every device should be able to defend itself, regardless if they are connected to a secure network or not,” Cuozzo said in an interview with TechCrunch.
The company’s approach differs from many competitors in the cybersecurity landscape. While firms like Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft Defender for IoT, Claroty, and Armis analyze threats from outside the device, and others such as Sternum IoT and Drivesec operate at the operating-system level, Exein works directly in the kernel – the central core that controls all hardware and software – before malicious code can execute.
This embedded security model keeps latency to a minimum, a critical advantage as AI-generated attacks unfold in milliseconds. A compromised firmware in a self-driving car or robotic arm could cause physical damage to infrastructure and people, not just data loss.
Exein has built its business around two products. Pulsar is a Linux defense tool that monitors and protects devices in real time using eBPF technology, which allows the operating system’s core to be controlled with minimal resource consumption, and Rust, a programming language designed for speed and vulnerability resistance.
Photon, built on that infrastructure, is the company’s preventive platform for Physical AI. It operates in kernel space to block malicious execution paths before an infection takes hold.
The company claims its technology protects more than 1.5 billion devices daily worldwide while TechCrunch reported a figure of more than 2 billion connected devices secured across aerospace, industrial automation, automotive manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and semiconductors
Cuozzo has observed a rise in what he calls “machine-speed attacks,” enabled by open-ier and cheaper for attackers to target physical devices in novel ways
To counter this, Exein is training a foundational model for Physical AI security using machine data and telemetrics. The company plans to have it ready by the first quarter of 2027.
The executive also acknowledged operational challenges. Being spread across three continents has required adjustment, but he said the approach has borne fruit, with the company “growing 400% year on year.”
The fresh capital will fund several priorities. Exein plans mergers and acquisitions to complete its product portfolio, along with hiring to accelerate expansion in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific markets. Those regions already generate 50% of the company’s revenue.
The company is also positioned to benefit from European Union regulation. The Cyber Resilience Act, whose reporting obligations took effect last week, sets strict security-by-design standards for hardware and IoT products sold within the European single market. The Act will come into full force in December 2027, requiring manufacturers to ensure all digital products are safe from cyber threats.
Exein’s growth trajectory mirrors a broader shift in how the technology industry approaches device security. As AI models increasingly run on edge devices rather than in centralized data centers, the attack surface expands dramatically. The company’s bet is that security must live inside the device itself, functioning like a digital immune system for connected hardware.
Once added, BigGo Finance appears first in Google Search Top Stories, so you get the broadest, most up-to-the-minute, and most comprehensive global financial news first.
