Italy-based Exein has joined Europe's unicorn club after closing a $270 million funding round led by Headline, lifting its valuation to $1.7 billion. The Rome startup is building a cybersecurity layer designed for physical AI, expanding from its original focus on connected devices and IoT.
CEO Gianni Cuozzo says the company's core idea is simple: every device should be able to protect itself, whether or not it sits inside a secure network. Its newest product, Photon, is built to stop attacks at the kernel level and strengthen security directly inside the device.
Founded in 2018, Exein has worked closely with manufacturers, OEMs, and silicon vendors to secure the supply chain behind connected products. The company says its technology now protects more than 2 billion devices across aerospace, industrial automation, automotive manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and semiconductors.
The next growth wave is expected to come from physical AI, a category that includes robots, drones, autonomous vehicles, smart appliances, and edge devices running AI models locally. Exein says this shift is creating new demand for security that can operate at machine speed.
The company also plans to develop a foundational model for Physical AI security, trained on machine data and telemetry, with a target launch in Q1 2027. Fresh capital will support acquisitions, product expansion, and hiring as Exein grows in the U.S. and Asia Pacific, which already contributes about half of its revenue.
With Europe's Cyber Resilience Act pushing manufacturers toward safer digital products, Exein is positioned at the intersection of AI, hardware, and trust. The coming years may define a new standard for how intelligent devices defend themselves in a connected world.
