‍CYBERSECURITY INDEX Q2 2026 - KEY INSIGHTS

Axeleo Capital (AXC) publishes the sixteenth edition of its Cybersecurity Index, a quarterly analysis of the European cybersecurity ecosystem, tracking investment dynamics, market structure, and emerging trends across the continent.

QUANTITATIVE INSIGHTS

The European cybersecurity sector raised €185M across 27 deals in Q2 2026, a marked decline from the €294M raised across 37 deals in Q2 of last year, representing roughly a 38% drop in capital deployed alongside a shrinking deal count. Early-stage rounds continue to dominate activity, with pre-seed and seed deals together accounting for 59% of all transactions during Q2.The quarter also recorded 6 exits, confirming a steady pace of consolidation across the ecosystem (see Exit Activity below).

KEY HIGHLIGHTS FOR Q2 2026

1 - Top Deals of the Quarter

●      Tsuga (FR), €32M Series A, backed by DST Global, Singular and General Catalyst.
Founded by two former Datadog engineers, Tsuga runs directly inside a customer's own cloud account rather than ingesting telemetry into its own systems, so no data leaves the customer's environment.

●      Geordie AI (UK), €28M Series A, backed by Balderton, General Catalyst and Ten Eleven.
Geordie provides a security and governance platform for AI agents, giving enterprises real-time visibility into which agents exist inside their organization, what data and tools they can access, and how they behave.

●      NeuralTrust (UK), €17M Seed, backed by Alstin Capital, Kibo Ventures and Seaya Ventures.
NeuralTrust develops software that secures and manages AI agents used inside large organizations, providing a centralized layer that tracks agent activity and enforces security policies, through three integrated products (TrustGate, TrustGuard and TrustLens).

●      RevEng (UK), €14M Series A, backed by NIF, IQ Capital and Episode One.
RevEng.AI helps organizations analyze compiled software at the binary level to determine what is actually inside executables, firmware and third-party software, without requiring access to source code, a capability increasingly relevant as more code ships from AI coding agents.

●      MokN (FR), €13M Series A, backed by GV, OVNI Capital and Datadog, among others.
MokN takes a proactive approach to credential theft, deploying realistic decoy environments (VPN portals, webmail systems) that trigger automated recovery workflows the moment attackers try to use stolen credentials, rather than relying on passive dark web monitoring.

2 - Market Structure : Geography

Geographically, the UK remains the most active ecosystem by deal count (8), with activity spread across multiple stages and segments. France, meanwhile, leads in capital deployed this quarter, while Germany and other Western European hubs continue to contribute a steady, distributed share of overall activity.

3 - Continued fragmentation across categories

Top funded categories in Q2 2026 include:

●   Risk, Compliance & Governance (~14.7%)

●   Identity & Access Management (~11.6%)

●   LLM & Agent Security (~14.7%)

●   Vulnerability Management (~14.7%)

4 - Consolidation in Seed/Series A Deals

Q2 2026 confirms the early-stage orientation of the market, with Seed and Pre-seed together driving the majority of activity.

While later-stage rounds remain present, the quarter is largely driven by early rounds, with several Seed and Series A deals in the €10–30M range (Tsuga, Geordie, NeuralTrust, RevEng, MokN).

EXIT ACTIVITY

Q2 2026 recorded 6 exits, confirming a continued, steady pace of M&A activity across the European cybersecurity ecosystem.

Acquisitions span a wide range of segments notably secure communications, cryptography & PKI, application security, industrial OT security, software composition analysis, digital forensics and post-quantum cryptography reflecting the breadth of consolidation underway.

●       Armour Comms (UK), secure collaboration & encrypted messaging, acquired by PentenAmio (UK)

●      Cryptovision (DE), cryptography & PKI platform, acquired by Atos (FR)

●      Quarkslab (FR), application security for code integrity & anti-tampering, acquired by Airbus (FR)

●      Rhebo (DE), industrial operational technology security, acquired by Everfield (DE)

●      Coana (DK), software composition analysis (SCA) platform, acquired by Socket (US)

●      Terra Quantum (CH), post-quantum key distribution & cryptography, acquired by Axiom Intelligence Acquisition Corp 1 (US)

5 - Acquirer Landscape : Regional Consolidation Meets US Interest

Geographically, acquirers remain a mix of European corporates (Airbus, Atos, Everfield) and US players (Socket, Axiom Intelligence Acquisition Corp 1), underlining the dual dynamic of regional consolidation and continued interest from US-based strategics and investors.

METHODOLOGY:

The Cybersecurity Index is based on data from Axeleo Capital's analysis as well as databases,  such as Crunchbase in particular. These data sources mainly gather information on deals and  rounds that have been publicly disclosed - many other raises are taking place, but without  announcements or communications on amounts (thus difficult to track). The analysis is limited  to companies headquartered in Europe, and with a value proposition focused on  Cybersecurity. As far as recorded fundraising is concerned, this refers to equity venture capital  fundraising only (i.e. excluding debt fundraising, subsidies and aid other than equity).

Please note that starting with this edition, we have updated the categories used to classify Cybersecurity companies in the Index, in order to better reflect the current structure of the market and emerging sub-segments (such as LLM & Agent Security).

ABOUT AXELEO CAPITAL:

Axeleo Capital 2 is a €70 million venture capital fund dedicated to B2B Tech start-ups,  including cybersecurity, across Europe. Axeleo Capital is a venture capital firm active on the  European technology scene and backed by a large pool of entrepreneur-investors. The fund  offers startup founders a unique support framework that combines equity investment,  operational and strategic coaching and an active ecosystem of over 100 high-level partners  and mentors. Its Cybersecurity investments include Seedata, Trustpair, Citalid, Mantra,  Yogosha (exit) and Alsid (exit).