Rome-based cybersecurity company Exein has raised €234 million ($270 million) in new funding. The investment values the company at €1.4 billion ($1.7 billion), reportedly making Exein the most valuable cybersecurity startup in Europe.
The new funding will help Exein expand its business in the US and Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets. The company will also use the capital to grow its work in Physical AI security.
Exein focuses on protecting intelligent machines that use AI to understand their surroundings, make decisions, and take action in the physical world. Its technology is designed to secure machines such as robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles.
The funding round was led by Headline. New investors including Sofina, Goldman Sachs, the European Investment Bank Group through ETCI, KfW Capital, and T.Capital also participated.
Existing investors Balderton, HV, Intrepid Growth Partners, 33N Ventures, Lakestar, Supernova Invest, Blue Cloud Ventures, and Geodesic Capital also joined the round.
Gianni Cuozzo, founder and CEO of Exein, says: “AI is moving out of the cloud and into the physical world, and this is the transition Exein was built for. We’ve developed deep expertise in how machines operate, invested heavily in the technology needed to protect them and built a global footprint that gives us an understanding of machines at a scale few others can match.
“Frontier models are pushing the patch window to zero. Attacks now happen at machine speed, so defense has to as well. Physical AI is the natural next step for Exein: we’re building machine-time security for machine-time attacks.”
Clarey Zhu, Partner at Headline, adds: “As AI moves into robots, vehicles, and critical infrastructure, securing the physical world will become one of the defining cybersecurity challenges of the next decade. Exein’s deep expertise in embedded systems and unique machine data give it a powerful advantage as it scales globally, and that advantage traces back to the team.
“Gianni and his team have incredible technical and commercial depth, they put customer trust above all else, and they have always chosen the harder, long-term-oriented path. We’re honoured to help them build a global leader in Physical AI security.”
Founded in 2018, Exein is a Physical AI cybersecurity company whose technology is used across more than two billion connected devices. It serves industries such as industrial automation, automotive, energy, healthcare, semiconductors, aerospace, and robotics.
Exein operates globally, with around 50% of its revenue coming from the Asia-Pacific region. The company has operations across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the United States.
According to Exein, its valuation has grown 30 times in the past two years. Its annual recurring revenue (ARR) also increased fourfold year-on-year in the first half of 2026.
Earlier this year, Exein launched Photon, a security system designed to detect and block malicious activity before an attack can take place. It works at the core level of a device, making it especially useful for autonomous machines that need security to respond quickly.
Exein is now combining its security technology with data from connected machines to build its own foundation AI model specifically for Physical AI security.
