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Radar · Cybersecurity in North Rhine Westphalia

Best Cybersecurity Companies in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany

The 77 best Cybersecurity companies in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: LeanIX.

77companies tracked
$318.3Mdisclosed funding
0unicorns
15have raised
FLIAR INTELLIGENCE · CYBERSECURITY × NORTH RHINE WESTPHALIA

Our analysis of 174 Cybersecurity companies

$16.2b in tracked funding; 96% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.

174companies analysed
96%cloud-native stacks
2025funding peak (by rounds)
20unicorns
2018median founding year
198kcombined LinkedIn audience
64%of audience held by top 3
2companies hiring publicly (12 mo)

Ranked: Best Cybersecurity companies in North Rhine Westphalia

#CompanyDisclosed fundingLast roundStageFounderFoundedTech stackPatents & IP focusRecent signals
1LeanIX
Provider of enterprise architecture solutions for business transformation and IT alignment
53Tech top 25%Funding top 33%Moat top 39%Growth top 45%
All 9 signals ▾
Techtop 25%
Fundingtop 33%
Moattop 39%
Growthtop 45%
AItop 45%
Producttop 46%
Globalbottom 45%
Newsbottom 32%
Marketbottom 28%
Tech: 60 technologies across 7/8 capability areas · Cloud: Amazon Cloudfront, Amazon Web Services
Funding: Raised $120M across 4 rounds · 4 rounds over 11 yrs (0.4/yr)
rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 53/100
$120M63 mo agoAcquired—2012HubSpot CMS HubApple iCloud MailMicrosoft 365+32—1 launch
2SoSafe
Cloud based platform offering cyber security training for employee awareness
$73M53 mo agoSeries BFelix Schurholz
Co-Founder
2018WordPressApple iCloud MailMySQL+29—2 launchs
3VMRay
Threat detection using hypervisor based dynamic analysis
50Moat top 22%Funding top 32%Talent top 38%Growth top 45%
All 8 signals ▾
Moattop 22%
Fundingtop 32%
Talenttop 38%
Growthtop 45%
Marketbottom 48%
Techbottom 47%
Globalbottom 43%
Newsbottom 27%
Moat: Editorial + unicorn rating 8/10 · Soonicorn
Funding: Raised $62.9M across 4 rounds · 4 rounds over 12 yrs (0.3/yr)
rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 50/100
$63M42 mo agoSeries BRalf Hund
Co-Founder & CTO
2013WordPressApple iCloud MailMySQL+25——
4Code Intelligence
Provider of vulnerability assessment and fuzz testing solutions provider
$15M48 mo agoSeries AKhaled Yakdan
Co-Founder & Chief Scientist
2017HubSpot CMS HubApple iCloud MailGoogle Workspace+33——
5Utimaco
Encryption and centralized management based data security solution
$13M273 mo agoAcquiredStefan Auerbach
CEO
1983DrupalApple iCloud MailMariaDB+224 patents
Secure key exchange and payload transmission for vehicle communication systems
—
6Baobab
Provider of cyber risk and vulnerability assessment solutions
27Moat top 39%Funding top 43%Market bottom 43%Global bottom 39%
All 5 signals ▾
Moattop 39%
Fundingtop 43%
Marketbottom 43%
Globalbottom 39%
Newsbottom 21%
Moat: Editorial + unicorn rating 7/10 · 10 curated direct competitors tracked
Funding: Raised $9.6M across 3 rounds · 3 rounds over 4 yrs (0.8/yr)
rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 27/100
$10M12 mo agoSeries A—2015——1 launch
7Swyx
Integrated unified communication solutions for SMB's
$9M246 mo agoAcquired—1999PleskNginxZendesk+5—1 launch · 2 partnerships
8Edgeless Systems
Confidential computing solutions for secure and accountable storing and processing of data
$7M39 mo agoSeedThomas Tendyck
Co-Founder
2019——1 partnership
9Secunet Security Networks
Enterprise security solution suite
$5M54 mo agoPublic—1997TYPO3 CMSPHPVideoJS+1395 patents
Secure messaging, confidential data access, and fail‑safe network communication technologies
1 partnership
104Stop
Provider of on-demand KYC solutions
$2M85 mo agoAcquiredIngo Ernst
Founder & CEO
2012———
11Escrypt
Security solution for embedded electronics systems
$608K110 mo agoAcquired—2003———

Top 12 Cybersecurity companies in North Rhine Westphalia

#1
Series A · Cologne, North Rhine Westphalia · founded 2015 · 37 employees
$9.6Mraised
▾

Provider of cyber risk and vulnerability assessment solutions. It provides a cyber security platform that assesses cyber risks for protecting businesses against cyber attacks. It also provides solutions such as security assessment, digital purchase management, active risk reduction, etc.

Fliar Intelligence Index™ 27how this company ranks against its industry peers
Moat
top 39%
Funding
top 43%
Market
bottom 43%
Global
bottom 39%
News
bottom 21%
Moat: Editorial + unicorn rating 7/10 · 10 curated direct competitors tracked
Funding: Raised $9.6M across 3 rounds · 3 rounds over 4 yrs (0.8/yr) · Last round Series A (Jun 2025)
Market: 37 employees
Audience (LinkedIn): 4k LinkedIn followers
Activity (LinkedIn): 1 product launches announced in 12 mo
Funding rounds
  • Jun 2025Series A$13.7M
  • Apr 2023Conventional Debt—
  • Jan 2023Seed$5.4M
  • Jan 2022Seed$4.2M
Investors
Augmentum Fintech, Discovery Ventures, La Famiglia, Project A, IBB, Viola FinTech
#2
Series B · Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia · founded 2013 · 79 employees
$62.9Mraised
▾

Threat detection using hypervisor based dynamic analysis. Provides threat analysis and detection using hypervisor-based dynamic analysis. It provides a platform-independent which monitors at the hypervisor level to detect malware running in the target OS. The features include agentless hypervisor-based malware analysis, API for integration and detection of windows malware including user-mode malware, executable and malicious data files, etc.

Fliar Intelligence Index™ 50how this company ranks against its industry peers
Moat
top 22%
Funding
top 32%
Talent
top 38%
Growth
top 45%
Market
bottom 48%
Tech
bottom 47%
Moat: Editorial + unicorn rating 8/10 · Soonicorn
Funding: Raised $62.9M across 4 rounds · 4 rounds over 12 yrs (0.3/yr) · Last round Series B (Dec 2022)
Talent: 2 named leaders on record · 2 C-suite/founder profiles curated
Audience (LinkedIn): 8k LinkedIn followers — 4.0% of this cohort's audience
Funding rounds
  • Dec 2022Series B$34M
  • Dec 2020Series B$15M
  • Sep 2019Series B$10M
  • Oct 2016Series A$3.9M
Founders & team
Ralf HundCo-Founder & CTOCarsten WillemsCo-Founder & CEO
Investors
Tikehau Capital, Grunderfonds Ruhr, eCapital, NRW.Bank, HTGF, Yttrium
Tech stack
Amazon CloudfrontAmazon Web ServicesApple Icloud MailElementorGoogle Tag ManagerHello Elementor
#3
Acquired · Bonn, North Rhine Westphalia · founded 2012 · 11 employees
$120Mraised
▾

Provider of enterprise architecture solutions for business transformation and IT alignment. The company's offerings facilitate application modernization, cloud migration, and AI adoption. It delivers tools and insights for technology investments, cost optimization, and operational efficiency. The solutions provide visibility into IT landscapes, enabling risk management and informed decision-making.

Fliar Intelligence Index™ 53how this company ranks against its industry peers
Tech
top 25%
Funding
top 33%
Moat
top 39%
Growth
top 45%
AI
top 45%
Product
top 46%
Tech: 60 technologies across 7/8 capability areas · Cloud: Amazon Cloudfront, Amazon Web Services · Devops: Envoy, Nginx
Funding: Raised $120M across 4 rounds · 4 rounds over 11 yrs (0.4/yr) · Last round Series D (Mar 2021)
Moat: Editorial + unicorn rating 6/10 · 10 curated direct competitors tracked
Audience (LinkedIn): 42k LinkedIn followers — 21.4% of this cohort's audience
Activity (LinkedIn): 1 product launches announced in 12 mo
Funding rounds
  • Mar 2021Series D—
  • Jul 2020Series D$80M
  • Dec 2018Series C$30M
  • Jul 2017Series B$7.5M
Investors
Insight Partners, DTCP, Capnamic Ventures, IRIS, Dawn Capital, Goldman Sachs Investment Partners
Tech stack
6SenseAlgoliaAmazon CloudfrontAmazon Web ServicesApple Icloud MailAxios
#4
Series B · Cologne, North Rhine Westphalia · founded 2018 · 370 employees
$73Mraised
▾

Cloud based platform offering cyber security training for employee awareness. It offers employees that engages training programs on cyber security and data protection with a lasting impact.

LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 30k LinkedIn followers — 15.0% of this cohort's audience
Activity: 2 product launches announced in 12 mo
Funding rounds
  • Jan 2022Series B$73M
Founders & team
Felix SchurholzCo-Founder Lukas SchaeferCo-Founder Niklas HellemannCo-Founder & CEO
Investors
Highland Europe, Acton Capital, Global Founders Capital, La Famiglia, Rocket Internet
Tech stack
AmplitudeApple Icloud MailCloudflareCloudflare Bot ManagementCookiebotCore-Js
#5
Series A · Bonn, North Rhine Westphalia · founded 2017 · 16 employees
$15.1Mraised
▾

Provider of vulnerability assessment and fuzz testing solutions provider. The product offered by the company is a static security test that increases the security and reliability of software. It also allows developers to perform testing without software testing expertise to detect and close software code vulnerabilities before unwanted foreign access and data loss occurs. The features of the product include bug detection, integration, etc. The clients of the company include BOSCH, encrypt, DCSO, sodge IT, etc.

Funding rounds
  • Jun 2022Series A$12M
  • Jun 2020Seed$2.3M
  • Sep 2018Seed$822.9K
Founders & team
Khaled YakdanCo-Founder & Chief ScientistSergej DechandCo-Founder & CEOHenning PerlCo-Founder & CTO
Investors
Tola Capital, Landesbank Baden Wurttemberg, OCCIDENT, Verve Ventures, HTGF, LBBW Venture Capital
Tech stack
Amazon S3Amazon SesAmazon Web ServicesAosApple Icloud MailCdnjs
#6
Seed · Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia · founded 2019 · 19 employees
$6.7Mraised
▾

Confidential computing solutions for secure and accountable storing and processing of data. The company's offerings include Edgeless DB, an end-to-end encrypted SQL database, Edgeless RT to build computing apps, and Edgeless Mesh, a service mesh for computing.

LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 5k LinkedIn followers — 2.4% of this cohort's audience
Activity: 1 partnerships (incl. Eperi GmbH) announced in 12 mo
Funding rounds
  • Mar 2023Seed$5M
  • Jun 2021Seed$1.7M
Founders & team
Thomas TendyckCo-FounderFelix SchusterCo-Founder
Investors
Inventures, SIX, Acequia Capital, Venture Creator, SquareOne, startport
#7
Public · Essen, North Rhine Westphalia · founded 1997 · 755 employees
$5.1Mraised
▾

Secunet Security Networks provides security for enterprise, defense and government organization. Product & services include security awareness, biometrics, cloud security, compliance, border control, critical infrastructure security, crypto systems, network security, PKI, email security and IAM. Solution include gateways, line encryptors, clients and management systems. Company also provides consulting services for security vendor evaluation and security posture assessment in accordance to CC and ITSEC. Company is IT Security partner of the Federal Republic of Germany.

LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 17k LinkedIn followers — 8.8% of this cohort's audience
Activity: 1 partnerships (incl. Portainer.io) announced in 12 mo
Funding rounds
  • Dec 2021Grant (prize money)$336.1K
  • Nov 2021Grant (prize money)$38.9K
  • Nov 2021Grant (prize money)$48.7K
  • Nov 2021Grant (prize money)$451.7K
Investors
Europa
Tech stack
Apache Http ServerBootstrapEtrackerFont AwesomeFriendly CaptchaGsap
#8
Acquired · Aachen, North Rhine Westphalia · founded 1983 · 347 employees
$13.4Mraised
▾

Encryption and centralized management based data security solution. It provides data security solutions to protect data assets against intentional or accidental data loss, and to comply with privacy laws. The products include CryptoServer, a HSM based encryption solution and lawful inspection appliance to monitor and preserve data for ISP and telecom.

LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 18k LinkedIn followers — 9.0% of this cohort's audience
Funding rounds
  • Sep 2003PE$13.4M
Founders & team
Stefan AuerbachCEO
Investors
Investcorp, Cornerstone Capital, Industriepartner Capital, Bluester Capital, Al-Nahdi, ACE & Company
Tech stack
Apache Http ServerApple Icloud MailDrupalFastlyGoogle AnalyticsGoogle Tag Manager
#9
Acquired · Dortmund, North Rhine Westphalia · founded 1999 · 125 employees
$9.3Mraised
▾

Offers IP based communication solutions. Helps in integrating voice with messaging and rich presence; while also allowing businesses to take full advantage of VOIP services. Offers telephony, conferencing, voicemail, fax based communication solutions. Sells its solutions through authorized IT and telecommunications resellers and service provider partners.

LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 4k LinkedIn followers
Activity: 1 product launches · 2 partnerships (incl. Nego Cloud) announced in 12 mo
Funding rounds
  • Nov 2005Series B$9.3M
Investors
Abn Amro, Wellington Partners Venture Capital, T.Capital, Tiburon, Neiser Capital
Tech stack
CloudflareMailgunMicrosoft 365NginxPlausiblePlesk
#10
Acquired · Cologne, North Rhine Westphalia · founded 2012 · 4 employees
$2.5Mraised
▾

Provider of on-demand KYC solutions. It offers an API that enables businesses to access KYC databases. The API enables businesses to validate the authenticity of customers, validate payment cards, and perform email checks, address checks, and bank account checks. It also enables businesses to scan watchlists and generate detailed person summary reports.

Funding rounds
  • May 2019Series A$2.5M
Founders & team
Ingo ErnstFounder & CEOAlvaro KurthCo-Founder | CRODaniel AlvaradoCo-Founder & CTO
Investors
Ventech
Tech stack
BootstrapApache Http ServerTwitterJqueryCookiebotAddthis
#11
Acquired · Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia · founded 2003 · 184 employees
$607.8Kraised
▾

Escrypt provides embedded system security solution for enterprise. Products include Production Key Server, CycurHSM, CycurKEYS, CycurLIB and CycurTLS. Escrypt services include security assessment, security strategy & architecture, customized software, customized hardware, certification support, PKI key management, application & code testing, and training awareness. Founded as a spinoff from the Horst Gortz Institute for IT Security (HGI) at RUB and currently operates as 100% subsidiary of ETAS.

LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 55k LinkedIn followers — 27.9% of this cohort's audience
Funding rounds
  • Apr 2017Grant (prize money)—
  • Jan 2017Grant (prize money)$60.3K
  • Feb 2016Grant (prize money)—
  • Jan 2015Grant (prize money)$547.5K
Investors
Europa
#12
Deadpooled · Cologne, North Rhine Westphalia · founded 2014
$38.1Kraised
▾

Lavaboom provided zero knowledge privacy based secure email service employing PGP encryption security. User required to implicitly use Lavaboom's email client to access mails and didn't provide password recovery service. Metadata including subject lines, sender, sending time and receiver email addresses were still unencrypted; however it replaced all the IP addresses with Lavaboom’s IP addresses in mails. In Aug, 2015, company declared bankruptcy and closed operations. It's also rumored to be acquihired by Invmail in Sept, 2015.

Funding rounds
  • 2014Seed$38.1K
Founders & team
Felix Müller-IrionFounder & CEO
Tech stack
WordpressMysqlPhpGeneratepressWp RocketElementor

Funding & investor landscape

$318.3Mtotal disclosed funding
12companies funded
34disclosed rounds
0rounds last 90 days
Most active investors
eCAPITAL4 rounds
Digital Hub3 rounds
HTGF3 rounds
Capnamic Ventures2 rounds
Europa2 rounds
German Accelerator2 rounds
La Famiglia2 rounds
Mountain Partners2 rounds
Neiser Capital2 rounds
The Revenue Group2 rounds

Notable founders

Ralf Hund
Co-Founder & CTO · VMRay
Carsten Willems
Co-Founder & CEO · VMRay
Felix Schurholz
Co-Founder · SoSafe
Lukas Schaefer
Co-Founder · SoSafe
Khaled Yakdan
Co-Founder & Chief Scientist · Code Intelligence
Sergej Dechand
Co-Founder & CEO · Code Intelligence
Thomas Tendyck
Co-Founder · Edgeless Systems
Felix Schuster
Co-Founder · Edgeless Systems
Stefan Auerbach
CEO · Utimaco
Ingo Ernst
Founder & CEO · 4Stop
Alvaro Kurth
Co-Founder | CRO · 4Stop
Felix Müller-Irion
Founder & CEO · Lavaboom
Prism market signals · Germany · country-scoped Prism corpus, 2,110,885 docs

Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage

Share of Cybersecurity coverage by sub-theme.

Regulatory-risk over time rising

Funding & growth over time

funding rising · growth rising

RESEARCH SIGNALS · Germany

How research on Cybersecurity is moving in Germany

A read on the academic research around Cybersecurity — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 423 Germany-affiliated papers.

research sentiment over time
200820172026
enthusiastic · positive · guarded tone
Tone is overwhelmingly optimistic and intensifying — the enthusiastic (strongly-positive) share moved 19% → 27% across 2008–2026.
top research entities
  • Technische Universität Berlin20
  • Siemens20
  • Technical University of Munich15
  • Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg14
  • German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence13
leading researchers
Wojciech Mazurczyk · Hans D. Schotten · Harald Baier · Daniel Fraunholz · Christoph Meinel · R. Krebs · Steffen Wendzel · Georg Carle
▲ Breakthroughs154 · 36%
▼ 38%→37% share
▲1.0× share momentum1 median citations46% since 2021mostly methods-led
Breakthroughs are cooling (38%→37% of field), led by Protocol (science).
rising sub-themes (early→recent)
  • Protocol (science)3→8
  • Set (abstract data type)1→6
  • Anomaly detection3→8
  • Malware1→6
  • Identification (biology)2→5
Newly emergingTestbed 0→5
Landmark Accelerated deep neural networks for enhanced Intrusion Detection System · 203 cites
◆ Advancements143 · 34%
▼ 35%→32% share
▼0.9× share momentum4 median citations43% since 2021mostly methods-led
Advancements are cooling (35%→32% of field), led by Malware.
rising sub-themes (early→recent)
  • Malware2→6
  • Denial-of-service attack3→6
  • Security service2→4
Newly emergingKey (lock) 0→7 · Covert channel 0→6 · Artificial neural network 0→5
Landmark A structured approach to anomaly detection for in-vehicle networks · 177 cites
▼ Concerns91 · 22%
▲ 19%→23% share
▲1.2× share momentum2 median citations48% since 2021mostly empirical
Concerns are rising (19%→23% of field), led by Computer network.
rising sub-themes (early→recent)
  • Computer network4→8
  • Anomaly detection1→4
  • Network packet3→4
Landmark An Overview of IP Flow-Based Intrusion Detection · 454 cites
RESEARCH HOTSPOTS · Germany

Where cybersecurity is researched across Germany

Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.

Munich29 · +0.57
Hot · Computer securityAdvancing · Network securityOpportunity · Denial-of-service attackConcern · Intrusion detection system
Berlin27 · +0.50
Hot · Intrusion detection systemAdvancing · Network securityConcern · Computer network
Jülich/Bonn18 · +0.43
Hot · Computer securityAdvancing · Intrusion detection systemOpportunity · Resilience (materials science)
Aachen11 · +0.59
Hot · Computer networkAdvancing · Network security
Karlsruhe11 · +0.35
Hot · Network securityOpportunity · Key (lock)
PATENT SIGNAL · Germany

Who's filing cybersecurity patents in Germany

Germany cybersecurity patent filing is accelerating — 22,130 filings from 6,617 assignees (2016–2025), led by Siemens, Robert Bosch, SAP SE; annual filings 1408→2619.

22,130 filings6,617 assigneespeak 2644/yr2016–2025
filing momentum (YoY 2016–2025)
top patent filers
  • Siemens5704
  • Robert Bosch2591
  • SAP SE1548
  • Infineon Technologies1448
  • Bundesdruckerei1334
  • Giesecke & Devrient1089
  • Deutsche Telekom787
  • SAP598

Common questions

How many Cybersecurity companies are there in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany?
Radar tracks 77 indexable Cybersecurity companies headquartered in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany that meet our profile-completeness bar.
What is the total funding raised by Cybersecurity companies in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany?
The Cybersecurity companies in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany on this list have raised a combined $318.3M in disclosed equity funding across 12 funded companies.
Which is the highest-funded Cybersecurity company in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany?
LeanIX is the highest-funded Cybersecurity company in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany, with $120M in disclosed equity funding.
How many Cybersecurity companies in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany are funded?
12 of the 77 Cybersecurity companies in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany on this list have disclosed at least one equity funding round.
How many Cybersecurity unicorns are there in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany?
None of the Cybersecurity companies in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany on this list currently has a disclosed valuation of $1B or more.
Who are the top investors in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany Cybersecurity companies?
The most active investors in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany Cybersecurity companies on this list include eCAPITAL, Digital Hub, HTGF, Capnamic Ventures, Europa.
Rohit KhannaTrends & Stories

Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.

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