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 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 across the bloc in June 2024 - June 2025. The market is racing to keep up: European cybersecurity spend is set to climb from $54.8 billion in 2025 to $83.1 billion by 2030, and global venture funding 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
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