Cyberattacks continue to threaten the systems that keep modern life running, including grounding flights, disrupting hospitals, and stalling supply chains. Exein, a cybersecurity company headquartered in Rome, is tackling that problem head-on.
The company has secured an additional €100 million in funding, bringing total capital raised in 2025 to €170 million. The round, led by Blue Cloud Ventures with support from HV Capital, Intrepid Growth Partners, Geodesic Capital, and J.P. Morgan, will help Exein expand globally, accelerate its AI-driven security platform, and pursue an ambitious M&A strategy in 2026.
Building a “digital immune system” for connected tech
Founded in 2018 by Gianni Cuozzo, Exein builds defences that live inside the device rather than outside it. Cuozzo saw early how attackers were exploiting blind spots between hardware and software.
Its AI runtime security system is hardware-agnostic, meaning it can operate across a wide range of manufacturers and operating systems. For businesses, this translates into stronger compliance with global cybersecurity standards, including the EU Cyber Resilience Act, RED 3.3, and the US Cyber Trust Mark. More importantly, it provides end-to-end visibility across the supply chain, ensuring that every component involved in production and deployment is trustworthy.
One of Exein’s newest areas of focus is protecting on-device artificial intelligence. As more companies push AI and large language models onto local hardware to improve speed and privacy, they also expose themselves to a new wave of vulnerabilities. Exein’s next-generation runtime protection is designed specifically for that emerging frontier, aiming to ensure that devices powering AI remain as secure as those running critical infrastructure.
Exein’s strength lies in its deep integration into the device architecture. While competitors such as Armis, Claroty, and Nozomi Networks focus on network visibility and external monitoring, Exein’s platform embeds protection directly in firmware.
What’s next?
Exein’s software already safeguards more than 1.5 billion devices across sectors such as energy, healthcare, aerospace, and industrial automation.
Cuozzo concludes, “This round demonstrates just how rapidly Exein is growing. In just one year, we’ve become a truly global company, expanding across the US and Asia-Pacific, and emerged as the world’s largest embedded runtime security provider by devices protected. This new funding will enable us to accelerate in 2026 and support our M&A strategy as we scale into new markets.”
He adds, “It will also enable us to introduce the next generation of runtime security technology, probably the most significant advance in our field in almost a decade. We’ll unveil the first wave of this breakthrough at RSAC in Q1, as we continue building the digital immune system that will protect the connected world for years to come.”
