Insider Brief
- Exein raised $270 million at a $1.7 billion valuation to expand in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific and develop cybersecurity technology for robots, drones, autonomous vehicles and other physical AI systems.
- Headline led the round, with participation from Sofina, Goldman Sachs, the European Investment Bank Group’s European Tech Champions Initiative, KfW Capital, T.Capital and several existing investors.
- Exein said its technology is deployed across more than two billion devices, while it is developing a machine-security foundation model and plans to introduce an autonomous security architecture by the end of 2026.
Exein has raised $270 million at a $1.7 billion valuation to expand its cybersecurity business in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific and develop security technology for robots, drones, autonomous vehicles and other connected machines.
According to the Italy-based company, Headline led the round, with participation from Sofina, Goldman Sachs, the European Investment Bank Group’s European Tech Champions Initiative, KfW Capital and T.Capital. Existing investors Balderton, HV, Intrepid Growth Partners, 33N Ventures, Lakestar, Supernova Invest, Blue Cloud Ventures and Geodesic Capital also participated.
The new funding will also support the company’s international expansion. About half of Exein’s revenue currently comes from Asia-Pacific, and the company has operations across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the U.S.
Exein develops cybersecurity software for connected devices and machines that use artificial intelligence to perceive their surroundings, make decisions and act in the physical world. Its technology is deployed across more than two billion devices, according to the company.
Exein founder and CEO Gianni Cuozzo noted the company’s expertise, technology investments and global expansion has put them in a good place to tackle the growing threats to physical AI systems.
“Frontier models are pushing the patch window to zero,” Cuozzo said. “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.”
Photon
Earlier this year, Exein introduced Photon, a runtime security system that operates at the kernel level, the core part of an operating system. The software is designed to block malicious code before it can execute, with a focus on connected and autonomous machines that may need to respond to threats without waiting for human intervention.
Exein indicated it has also been developing a foundation model focused on machine security for two years that is being trained on telemetry generated by devices running its technology. The company plans to use the model to support security agents that can monitor and respond to threats on the systems where they operate, and expects to introduce the architecture by the end of 2026. Its first foundation models are then planned for the first quarter of 2027.
Exein said it is detecting about 5,000 new, non-repetitive attacks across its network each week, roughly five times the level recorded a year ago.
What’s Next?
The company said it plans to increase U.S. hiring, customers and partnerships over the next two years and is considering opening an office in the San Francisco Bay Area. It will continue evaluating acquisition opportunities as it expands..
Since its previous funding round in December 2025, Exein has opened an Asia-Pacific headquarters in Taiwan and added partnerships across semiconductors, industrial computing and connected infrastructure.
The financing comes alongside an expansion of Exein’s existing revolving credit facility led by J.P. Morgan, with KfW joining as an additional lender. The Rome-based company said its valuation has increased thirtyfold over the past two years with annual recurring revenue in the first half of 2026 four times higher than a year ago.
