When we first met Willem, Roeland and Felix back in late 2023, everything about Aikido “shouldn’t have worked.” A European team in a Palo Alto / Tel Aviv–dominated market, no traditional cyber pedigree, and a developer-first GTM.

But we immediately recognised three exceptional product founders and a strong fit with our thesis. Product-led, high velocity, with a bold ‘break the rules’ mentality. Even with only a handful of customers at the time, it was obvious that they were building something the security market badly needed: security as engineering. We leaned in with high conviction and won the privilege to co-lead their Seed round and to be part of the board.

Fast forward two years, and Aikido is a product loved by many: $20m+ ARR and accelerating, trusted by flagship customers like Revolut and n8n, used by 100,000+ teams globally, with five AI-native products launched and a 170-strong team. And a new milestone to top it off: a $60m Series B led by DST Global, valuing the company at $1B.

🦄 🦄 🦄 From no bullsh*t security to $1B in under three years. Aikido is the fastest-ever European cybersecurity unicorn and the only European unicorn across software security (code, cloud, application).

🚀 🚀 🚀 I’ve been reflecting on what it really takes — and what truly sets Aikido apart. Here are seven Aikido-style moves that made the difference:

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#1 🥋 Strong opinions

In tech, innovation often begins with founders who have lived the problem themselves and refuse to accept how things “have always been done”– and build what users actually need. Willem, as a developer and CTO, was a frustrated buyer and user of incumbent security tools. He co-founded Aikido to fix security for developers once and for all.

#2 🥋 Product Velocity

Product founders move fast. The product velocity of Aikido is world-class. Willem defines it as “ruthless”. They go deep and wide, outperforming large incumbents’ point solutions (like Snyk, Wiz, Semgrep) on their turf.

#3 🥋AI -> Self-securing software

They were also speedy at infusing AI automation and leverage their security infrastructure and data. And that works magically. Aikido is now self-securing software that can automatically be tested, find issues, validate them, and fix them

#4 🥋Users’ Love 💌 🤖

Product founders stand out for their obsession with user experience. Security is broken, abstracted into quadrants, and out of an engineer’s reality. Aikido is Willem’s love letter to security; he makes security tools work with developers, not against them. It begins and ends with engineering.

#5 🥋Multi-product, all-in-one platform

Security teams want the best tool in each category, not compromises. What makes this even stronger is context. When these capabilities are bundled together, Aikido delivers more accurate findings and faster remediation than tools that operate in isolation.

I wrote about Aikido’s all-in-one platform thesis back at the seed round: Bundling Cybersecurity: we invested in Aikido.

#6 🥋Flipping the GTM Paradigm

What does happen when outsider founders challenge the status quo of cybersecurity and are determined to bring a rebellious, engineering-first approach from Europe? They turn the “how to win in cybersecurity” playbook upside down, write a new one and build a new category.

• ❌ CISO only ✅ Developer-first. Always.
• ❌ Top-down direct sales sales ✅ PLG and freemium motion
• ❌ Intransparent, fragmented ✅ Simple pricing & packaging
• ❌ Bland corporate style ✅Fun marketing, fresh branding #noBSsecurity

#7 🥋Stayed Local. Played Global. 💌 🇧🇪

Built in Ghent and loved worldwide, Aikido has become Belgium’s fastest-growing company and a magnet for top technical talent, now home to 21 ex-founders and CTOs. A local hero with global ambition, it has sold internationally from day one, with 53% of ARR in North America, HQs in Chicago and San Francisco, and a growing presence across Europe, Asia, and South America.

Seven moves, one win. As well as many more to come. It feels like Aikido is only scratching the surface of what it can achieve as it redefines security as engineering and leads the next AI frontier: self-securing software.

Onwards. Upwards.

P.S.

Last June, we had Roeland on stage at our Product Summit, Built By Few London, and it was a blast.
We are now thrilled to host ‘Built By Few: Ghent’ at the Aikido HQ. If you are interested in joining us, express your interest here.