Depi raises $5.9M to detect software supply chain attacks before they strike
What's the deal? Depi, a French cybersecurity startup founded by 24-year-old hacker Roni Carta, has raised $5.9M from 20VC and Seedcamp. The company builds a platform that detects software supply chain attacks before they strike — and proved its worth by spotting a worm targeting Mistral AI 25 days before it hit.
Carta's backstory reads like fiction. He grew up obsessed with the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, skipped engineering school, hacked Fortune 500 companies for fun, and landed a full-time security job at 18.
Why now? Software supply chain attacks — where malicious code is injected into widely used open-source packages — have become one of the fastest-growing threats in cybersecurity. As AI companies like Mistral AI rely on complex webs of dependencies, the attack surface keeps expanding.
The timing also reflects a broader French and European push toward tech sovereignty. Safran recently acquired satellite imagery assets from startup Kayrros to build a full-stack battlefield intelligence platform. Airbus is investing €260M in a new campus near Paris dedicated to military AI, cybersecurity, and quantum tech. And the European Commission just tapped EQT to manage a €5B fund designed to keep deeptech startups from fleeing to the US.
What could go wrong? Depi is entering a crowded cybersecurity market with well-funded incumbents. At $5.9M, it is still a small seed-stage company that will need to prove it can scale beyond a handful of high-profile catches.
Meanwhile, France's crypto hardware wallet maker Ledger — once expected to pursue a $4B US IPO with Goldman SachsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Jefferies, and Barclays — has shelved its listing plans as crypto IPO appetite cools. That's a reminder that even France's most mature tech companies face unpredictable capital markets.
The signal: France is betting heavily on sovereign technology across cybersecurity, AI, defence, and quantum. Airbus, Safran, and Dassault have collectively poured over half a billion euros into new French industrial sites. A new Franco-German research lab called KE:SAI, launched by French AI lab Kyutai and Germany's ELLIS Institute, aims to build open-source "physical AI" — including a self-driving stack — from bases in Paris and Tübingen.
The pattern is clear: Europe is trying to build and keep its own tech champions rather than watch them migrate to the US. The Commission's €5B scaleup fund, targeting AI, quantum, defence, clean energy, and space, is the most concrete signal yet that the continent is serious about closing the capital gap with America.
For Depi, the wind is at its back. A 24-year-old hacker with a knack for spotting threats before they land is exactly the kind of founder Europe wants to nurture — and keep.
Read more: frenchtechjournal.com
