Exein raises $270M at $1.7B valuation, claims title of Europe’s most valuable cybersecurity scaleup

Exein, the Physical AI cybersecurity company, today announced $270 million in new funding at a $1.7 billion valuation, making it Europe's most valuable cybersecurity startup. 

Exein’s AI-powered technology spans more than two billion connected devices across sectors including industrial automation, automotive, energy, healthcare, semiconductors, aerospace, and robotics. 

Through Photon, Exein delivers preemptive runtime security for connected devices, Physical AI, autonomous AI agents and cloud and edge infrastructure. The company is building the global standard for runtime cybersecurity and the digital immune system for connected life. 

Headline leads the round, with participation from Sofina, Goldman Sachs, European Investment Bank Group through ETCI, KfW Capital, and T.Capital, and involvement from previous investors Balderton, HV, Intrepid Growth Partners, 33N Ventures, Lakestar, Supernova Invest, Blue Cloud Ventures, and Geodesic Capital. The round was significantly oversubscribed.

This comes alongside an upsizing of Exein’s existing revolving credit facility led by J.P. Morgan, with KfW joining as an additional lender. 

Exein’s valuation has increased thirty-fold in two years, reflecting rapid commercial and international growth. The company's H1 2026 ARR was up 4x year on year.

Building security for the Physical AI era

As AI moves into machines that perceive, decide, and act in the physical world, new security challenges are emerging. Earlier this year, Exein launched Photon, a kernel-level runtime security architecture designed to block malicious execution before an attack can run.

Exein is now developing a proprietary foundation model for Physical AI security, trained on machine telemetry generated through its technology across more than two billion devices. Unlike general-purpose models trained largely on human-generated data, it learns from years of data showing how machines actually operate.

The model will power autonomous security agents designed to protect systems at machine speed without waiting for human intervention.

Exein plans to introduce the architecture by the end of 2026, with its first foundation models expected in Q1 2027. The move comes as cyberattacks themselves accelerate. Exein says it now sees around 5,000 new, non-repetitive attacks across its network each week — five times the level recorded a year ago.

Accelerating global expansion

Exein is already a global business, with around 50 per cent of its revenue coming from Asia-Pacific and operations spanning Europe, Asia-Pacific and the United States. 

Since its previous funding round in December 2025, Exein has established its APAC headquarters in Taiwan and secured new partnerships across semiconductors, industrial computing and connected infrastructure.

The funding will further accelerate its expansion in key markets, including the US and APAC. Over the next two years, Exein plans to increase US hiring, customers and partnerships, while also aiming to open a new office in the San Francisco Bay Area. The company will continue to pursue M&A opportunities as it expands its technology platform and global footprint.

Gianni Cuozzo, founder and CEO of Exein, said:

“AI is moving out of the cloud and into the physical world, and this is the transition Exein was built for. We’ve developed deep expertise in how machines operate, invested heavily in the technology needed to protect them and built a global footprint that gives us an understanding of machines at a scale few others can match.

Frontier models are pushing the patch window to zero. Attacks now happen at machine speed, so defence has to as well. 

Physical AI is the natural next step for Exein: we’re building machine-time security for machine-time attacks.”

Clarey Zhu, Partner at Headline, said:

"As AI moves into robots, vehicles, and critical infrastructure, securing the physical world will become one of the defining cybersecurity challenges of the next decade.

Exein's deep expertise in embedded systems and unique machine data give it a powerful advantage as it scales globally, and that advantage traces back to the team.

Gianni and his team have incredible technical and commercial depth, they put customer trust above all else, and they have always chosen the harder, long-term-oriented path. We're honoured to help them build a global leader in Physical AI security."