Aikido Security, a Belgian AppSec-focused startup, has reached unicorn status and topped Sifted's latest European startup ranking. The company scaled via viral marketing stunts (fake perfume, creative PR) while building enterprise application security tools, capturing market share from traditional SAST/DAST vendors.
For security buyers: Aikido's rise signals that European startups can compete globally on go-to-market agility, not just technology. Its unicorn-at-growth trajectory contrasts with pre-2024 funding scarcity in Europe; monitor similar AppSec, DevSecOps, and cloud-native security startups emerging from EMEA.