Big ticket early-stage bets fuel Europe's cybersecurity funding

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After a near-record twelvemonth for European cybersecurity VC funding, concern has maintained gait successful Q1, with the absorption shifting to larger early-stage deals.

In the archetypal 3 months of the year, Europe attracted $1 cardinal successful cybersecurity VC investment, according to our latest study connected the sector, putting the magnitude broadly connected way to lucifer 2025’s full-year total—the second-highest fig successful a decade. However, the cadence of dealmaking has trailed since past year, with 61 deals closing—indicating that deals are getting larger contempt early-stage startups accounting for a greater stock of capital, suggesting that investors are making less but larger bets connected perceived class winners.

The increasing stock of superior going to early-stage startups successful Europe’s cybersecurity assemblage aligns with a planetary shift. For the archetypal clip successful much than 3 years, woody worth for early-stage startups globally exceeded that of late-stage startups, reaching $2.1 billion.

In Q1, the planetary median for cybersecurity rounds stood astatine $25 million, much than treble 2025’s fig and importantly supra late-stage’s median of $17.5 million.

VCs’ determination toward younger companies coincides with the emergence of AI-native cybersecurity startups raising larger rounds, specified arsenic Israeli insider-threat level developer Above, which raised $50 cardinal successful March.

Six of Q1’s largest European rounds successful the vertical were for early-stage companies; lone 2 were late-stage.

Tel Aviv-based Gambit Security, developer of an AI-based cyber resilience platform, raised $61 cardinal successful February from investors including Spark Capital, Kleiner Perkins and Cyberstarts. Aikido Security, a Belgium-based startup offering AI penetration testing, reached unicorn presumption successful January with a $60 cardinal Series B led by DST Global.

Security operations, which covers the real-time detection, probe and effect to threats, was the largest conception for VC activity, buoyed by the visibility of AI-driven threats and increasing endeavor budgets astir the space.