Aikido Security

Aikido Security operates a unified application-security platform that spans source code, open-source dependencies, cloud infrastructure, and application runtime. The product is organized into four modules: Aikido /Code (static analysis/SAST, software composition analysis/SCA with SBOM generation, secrets detection, malware detection powered by Aikido Intel, infrastructure-as-code scanning, outdated-software checks, AI code quality review and Deep PR Review), Aikido /Cloud (cloud security posture management across major cloud providers, virtual machine scanning, container and Kubernetes image scanning, CVE-free hardened images, and a code-first DSPM that reads code, schemas and infrastructure configuration rather than customer data), Aikido /Attack (AI penetration testing with 200+ agents, continuous autonomous pentesting that validates exploitability and generates patches, DAST surface monitoring, API discovery and fuzzing, attack-surface mapping), and Aikido /Protect (runtime in-app firewall branded Zen, device protection against malicious browser extensions, IDE plugins and libraries, and bot protection).

A central design theme is alert-noise reduction and remediation: the platform deduplicates related findings, applies AutoTriage that evaluates alerts against code and infrastructure context, supports custom exclusion rules, and generates reviewable AutoFix pull requests including bulk fixes. Rather than acting as an additional dashboard, Aikido pushes prioritized findings into tools customers already use, including Jira, Slack, Microsoft Teams, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket Pipes, Azure Pipelines, VSCode, Asana, ClickUp, Monday, YouTrack, and compliance vendors Vanta and Drata.

The company states it is API-based with no agents required, uses read-only version-control access, runs each scan in an ephemeral Docker container that is destroyed after analysis, and does not retain customer source code; a local/on-prem scanner option is also offered. It publishes open-source runtime firewall libraries (Zen for Node, Python, PHP, Java, .NET, Go, Ruby) and the Safe Chain package-manager protection tool on GitHub, where it maintains 61 public repositories.

Founding story

Founded in 2022 by developers who found existing security tools slow, confusing, overpriced and noisy, and set out to build tooling developers would use and security teams could trust. The founding team is described as an outsider group: European, based in a village, without prior cybersecurity industry pedigree or a CISO sales network, which pushed them toward a bottom-up, inbound-driven model.

Business model

B2B software-as-a-service sold to engineering and security teams, with a free entry tier requiring no credit card, self-service onboarding via version-control login, and expansion from a single module to the full platform as customers grow. Enterprise engagement is supported by demos and direct sales contact.

Subscription access to the security platform, with a freemium free tier and paid tiers/modules; the company describes a freemium, developer-led go-to-market. Specific pricing is not stated in the sources.

Traction

The company reports more than 100,000 teams using the platform globally as of January 2026, five-times revenue growth and nearly three-times customer growth over the prior year, and a $1 billion valuation. Website marketing cites 150k+ organizations, 300k+ developers, a 4.7/5 rating and users across 70+ countries. Customer testimonials cite 75% and 92% alert-noise reduction and onboarding of 150+ developers in 45 minutes. Open-source traction includes 1,700 stars on Safe Chain and hundreds of stars across the Zen firewall repositories.

Latest developments

The January 2026 Series B is intended to fund the company's 'self-securing software' vision, beginning with Aikido Attack, its AI penetration testing product using hundreds of on-demand agents, and progressing toward continuous autonomous testing and remediation loops embedded in every feature release. Recent or newly marketed platform capabilities include Deep PR Review, AI code quality review, hardened CVE-free container images, code-first DSPM, and device protection; container and Kubernetes runtime scanning is listed as coming soon. Leadership listed in 2026 includes Willem Delbare (co-founder, CTO & CEO), Roeland Delrue (co-founder, COO), Felix Garriau (co-founder, CMO), Madeline Lawrence (co-founder, CGO), John Amaral (CSTO), Maarten De Schuymer (VP Product), Thijs Janse (CRO), Louis Jonckheere (General Manager, USA), Elie Boonefaes (CFO) and Ian Riopel (ASD). The company is hiring in Ghent for malware research and security research roles.