European cybersecurity funding is on track for an all-time high
European cybersecurity companies have raised $1.28B so far this year. At that rate 2026 finishes near $1.8B, above the 2022 record of $1.63B. The largest round of the year is Exein’s $270M in September, which is also the largest any European cybersecurity company has raised.
2026 is on course for $1.8B, above the 2022 peak
Source: Dealroom.co · Excludes crypto and DeFi · 2026 to 15 Sep, annualised
Europe’s biggest Cybersecurity VC rounds
Source: Dealroom.co · Excludes crypto and DeFi
The money is not spread evenly. 76 rounds this year have a disclosed size and a known location, and 28 of them are British.
Every 2026 cybersecurity round in Europe
Source: Dealroom.co · Excludes crypto and DeFi · Rounds to 15 Sep · Circle area is round size
Rounds of that size stay rare. Since 2021, European cybersecurity companies have closed 710 rounds with a disclosed size, and 457 of them were under $5 million.
13 rounds of $100M or more since 2021
Source: Dealroom.co · Excludes crypto and DeFi
The biggest round of the year
Exein makes security software for connected hardware, embedded below the operating system in the firmware. It raised $270M in September at a $1.7 billion valuation, having been valued at $770M nine months earlier.
Exein: from a $2.2M seed in 2018 to $1.7B
Valuation at each round. Hollow points are Dealroom estimates.
Source: Dealroom.co
What this means
Europe has never put this much venture capital into cybersecurity, and the year is not finished. The money is going into fewer, larger rounds: 2026 is on track for 146 rounds against 188 in 2025, and the average round has gone from $7.1M to $12.4M.
Before this year no European cybersecurity company had raised more than $250M. Europe’s five most valuable cybersecurity companies have all been acquired: Thoma Bravo bought Sophos and Darktrace, NortonLifeLock bought Avast, Permira bought Mimecast and OpenText bought Micro Focus. Whether $270M becomes normal or stays an outlier is what the next five rounds will say.