> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.therecursive.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # 22 Cybersecurity Startups in Central & Eastern Europe - URL: https://www.therecursive.com/22-cybersecurity-startups-in-central-eastern-europe/ - Published: 2026-06-25T13:36:13.000Z - Updated: 2026-06-25T13:36:13.000Z - Description: As AI arms global hackers, the EU's NIS2 fines have sparked a massive cybersecurity gold rush. While total funding hits records, Central & Eastern European startups are quietly leading the charge against digital threats. - Author: Elena Ghinita - Tags: CEE, Listicle, cybersecurity, early-stage startups With the increase in proficiency and *creativity* of hackers, enabled by AI tools, cybersecurity has become a major topic of discussion worldwide. The EU's [NIS2 Directive](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/nis2-directive?ref=therecursive.com) now binds **more than 160,000 entities to mandatory cyber obligations**, with fines of up to €10 million or 2% of global turnover, while the [European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) logged 4,875 incidents](https://www.enisa.europa.eu/publications/enisa-threat-landscape-2025?ref=therecursive.com) across the bloc in June 2024 - June 2025\. The market is racing to keep up: [European cybersecurity spend](https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/europe-cybersecurity-market-156644743.html?ref=therecursive.com) is set to climb from $54.8 billion in 2025 to $83.1 billion by 2030, and [**global venture funding**](https://www.securityweek.com/cybersecurity-firms-secured-14-billion-in-funding-in-2025/?ref=therecursive.com) into the sector hit nearly $14 billion in 2025 — its strongest year since 2021. Central & Eastern Europe is quietly cashing in. Deep technical talent, lower burn rates, and a regulatory tailwind from the EU have turned the region into one of Europe's most prolific cybersecurity production lines: from post-quantum authentication in **Prague** and behavioral fraud AI in **Brno**, to identity verification in **Sofia**, supply-chain security in **Zagreb**, and offensive tooling in **Bucharest**. To have a better view of the CEE’s cybersecurity players, consult the list below. *\* Do you know a rising cybersecurity startup building in CEE that we've missed? Let us know at newsroom@therecursive.com.* ## **🇧🇬** Bulgaria ## ### Alcatraz AI (Sofia / Cupertino — Bulgarian-founded) **Founder:** Vince Gaydarzhiev **Founded:** 2016 **Solution**: 3D facial recognition reader that replaces badges and PINs at office doors **Funding to date**: \~€92M total, including a €46M Series B in April 2026 **Investors**: BlackPeak Capital, Cogito Capital, ODC Ventures, Taiwania Capital, Almaz Capital, EBRD, Endeavor Catalyst, SeedBlink, entrepreneur Ray Stata ### Evrotrust (Sofia) **Founders**: Konstantin Bezuhanov, George Dimitrov **Founded**: 2018 **Solution**: Mobile app for qualified e-signatures and digital identity **Funding to date**: €12.4M with the latest being the €6.6M round in November 2025 **Investors**: 3TS Capital Partners, Silverline Capital, Bulgarian Development Bank, Capital Investment Fund ### WiseBee (Sofia / New York) **Founders**: Stoyan Stoyanov, Taha Kazi **Founded**: 2024 **Solution**: Agentic AI security platform for mid-market companies **Funding to date**: \~€2.1M pre-seed (August 2025) **Investors**: Frontline Ventures and BrightCap Ventures, plus a US investment firm and cybersecurity angels from SecurityScorecard, VMware, Box, Amazon, Deloitte, Verizon, Google --- ## 🇭🇷 Croatia ### ReversingLabs (Zagreb founding, HQ Cambridge MA) **Founders**: Mario Vuksan, Tomislav Peričin **Founded**: 2009 **Solution**: Software supply-chain security and malware analysis **Funding to date**: \~€119M total across 4 rounds, with the latest being the €35M Series B+ in 2024 **Investors**: Crosspoint Capital Partners, JPMorgan Chase, ForgePoint Capital, Prelude, In-Q-Tel --- ## 🇨🇿 Czech Republic ### GoodAccess (Ústí nad Labem) **Founders**: Michal Čížek, Martin Čížek, and Jiří Hromádka **Founded**: 2019/2020 (product launch July 2020) **Solution**: Cloud-based VPN and Zero Trust access for SMBs **Funding to date**: \~€1.9M **Investors**: Nation 1, Fazole Ventures, Google for Startups ### GreyCortex (Brno) **Founders**: Petr Chaloupka, Michal Drozd, and Petr Chmelař **Founded**: 2016 (research lineage from 2009) **Solution**: Platform that monitors company networks and flags suspicious activity **Funding to date**: \~€1.1M **Investors**: Y Soft Ventures ### IP Fabric (Prague) **Founder**: Pavel Bykov **Founded**: 2015 **Solution**: Software that maps enterprise networks and surfaces weak spots **Funding to date**: \~€27.8M total, with the latest being the €23.1M Series B in June 2023 **Investors**: One Peak Partners, Presto Ventures, Spring Tide Ventures ### Resistant AI (Prague) **Founders**: Martin Rehak, Lukas Machlica, Karel Bartos, Martin Gril, Tomas Laube, Martin Vejman, Jan Jusko, Josef Stach, Jan Stiborek **Founded**: 2019 **Solution**: AI-native models for document fraud detection and transaction monitoring **Funding to date**: \~€58.4M total; €21.6M Series B in October 2025 **Investors**: DTCP, Experian, GV (Google Ventures), Notion Capital, Index Ventures, Credo Ventures, Seedcamp ### Safetica (Brno) **Founder**: Jakub Mahdal **Founded**: 2007 **Solution**: Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Insider Risk Management (IRM) software **Funding to date**: \~€6M total, with €3.8M in January 2025 **Investors**: Impulse Capital, angel investors ### ThreatMark (Brno) **Founders**: Michal Tresner, Kryštof Hilar **Founded**: 2015 **Solution**: Behavioral biometrics for banking fraud detection **Funding to date**: \~€35.5M total, with €22.14M in January 2025 **Investors**: Octopus Ventures, Riverside Acceleration Capital (RAC), Springtide Ventures ### Whalebone (Brno) **Founders**: Richard Malovic, Robert Sefr **Founded**: 2016 **Solution**: DNS-layer security for telcos and governments **Funding to date**: \~€16.4M total, with €13.4M Series B in February 2025 **Investors**: Unbound, Day One Capital, Fazole Ventures, Wayra ### Wultra (Prague) **Founder**: Petr Dvořák **Founded**: 2014 **Solution**: Post-quantum authentication for mobile banking **Funding to date**: +€3M, with €3M Seed+ in January 2025 and an earlier undisclosed amount **Investors**: Tensor Ventures, Elevator Ventures, J&T Ventures --- ## 🇭🇺 Hungary ### BitNinja (Debrecen) **Founder**: George Egri **Founded**: 2014 **Solution**: Server-side security for Linux hosting environments **Funding to date**: \~€2.8M total **Investors**: Lead Ventures, iEurope, Oxo Technologies Holding, Octogon Ventures, founders of Balabit ### SEON (Budapest / London / Austin) **Founders**: Tamás Kádár and Bence Jendruszák **Founded**: 2017 **Solution**: Risk intelligence platform powered by digital footprint analysis **Funding to date**: \~€166M total, with €67.5M Series C in September 2025 **Investors**: Sixth Street Growth, IVP, Creandum, Firebolt, Hearst, PortfoLion; plus angel founders/execs from Coinbase, Datadog, Figma, Wise, Revolut, UiPath, etc. --- ## 🇵🇱 Poland ### Authologic (Warsaw / London / San Francisco) **Founders**: Krzysztof Klimczak, Jarek Sygitowicz, and Marek Rogoziński **Founded**: 2020 **Solution**: Identity verification API for bank logins and digital IDs **Funding to date**: \~€7.6M across 4 rounds, with €7.6M Series A in October 2024 **Investors**: OpenOcean, Y Combinator, Peak Capital, SMOK VC ### Cryptomage (Wrocław / Warsaw) **Founders**: Miłosz Smolarczyk, Krzysztof Szczypiorski, and Jakub Pawluk **Founded**: 2015 **Solution**: Network detection and response probe for deep packet threat detection **Funding to date**: \~€3M **Investors**: European Regional Development Fund and the Polish National Centre for Research and Development (grants), Starfinder Capital, Atende SA ### Cyberus Labs (Katowice) **Founders**: Jack Wolosewicz and Marek Ostafil **Founded**: 2015 **Solution**: Passwordless authentication and IoT security suite **Funding to date**: \~€2.8M **Investors**: Horizon 2020, Startup Collider by PwC ### ICsec (Poznań) **Founder**: Robert Juszczyk **Founded**: 2018 **Solution**: Industrial network security for OT networks in energy, gas, water, and rail **Funding to date**: \~€2.5M **Investors**: ORLEN VC, EEC Ventures, PGNiG Ventures --- ## 🇷🇴 Romania ### Cyberhaven (Romanian/Ukrainian-founded, HQ Palo Alto) **Founders**: Cristian Zamfir, George Candea, Radu Banabic, Volodymyr Kuznetsov, and Vitaly Chipounov **Founded**: 2016 **Solution**: Data lineage platform that tracks information across cloud and endpoints **Funding to date**: \~€215M total, with €86M (≈$100M) Series D in April 2025 at a €860M valuation **Investors**: StepStone Group, Khosla Ventures, Adams Street Partners, Redpoint, Vertex Ventures, Costanoa, Trinity Ventures, Wing VC, Schroders Capital, Industry Ventures, plus angels including Alex Stamos and Adam D'Angelo ### Cyscale (Cluj-Napoca) **Founders**: Ovidiu Cical, Manuela Țicudean, and Andrei Milaș **Founded**: 2018 **Solution**: Cloud security platform for AWS, Azure, and GCP **Funding to date**: \~€3.1M across 4 rounds, with €3M Seed led by Notion Capital in May 2022 **Investors**: Notion Capital, Seedcamp, GapMinder, NP-Hard Ventures, David Mytton (angel) ### Pentest-Tools.com (Bucharest) **Founder**: Adrian Furtuna **Founded**: 2017 **Solution**: Cloud-based toolkit for penetration testing **Funding to date**: Bootstrapped / profitable; minor early backing Investors: Orange Fab Romania ### TypingDNA (Oradea / New York) **Founders**: Raul Popa, Cristian Tamas, and Adrian Gheara Founded: 2016 **Solution**: Behavioral biometrics for typing-based authentication **Funding to date**: \~€7.3M across seed and Series A **Investors**: Gradient Ventures (Google's AI fund, lead Series A), Techstars Ventures, GapMinder