Why ARIADNEXT founders backed Wultra's €6.8M round as customers first
What's the deal? Wultra, a Prague-based startup, has raised €6.8 million in a Series A round led by Seventure PartnersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
The funding will help expand its post-quantum banking authentication platform into the Middle East and the US.
Most notably, angel investors Marc Norlain and Guillaume Despagne — who co-founded digital identity firm ARIADNEXTDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → before selling it to IDnow in 2021 — backed Wultra only after using its product as customers.
"We have known Wultra for years as their customers, and we are convinced they will be a leader in this field," the pair said jointly. Returning investors J&T VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Elevator VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the venture arm of Raiffeisen Bank InternationalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, also joined.
Why now? Gartner warns that by 2029, quantum computing could break the standard cryptography used in most bank login systems.
Yet nearly half of organisations in Europe and North America remain unprepared.
Wultra replaces older login methods — passwords, one-time SMS codes, and traditional public-key cryptography — with a system designed to resist both phishing and future quantum threats. It can be integrated into existing banking systems in about eight weeks, without a full overhaul.
Founded in 2014 by Petr DvorakDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the startup now supports more than 70 clients across 25 countries, including Erste Digital, OTP BankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Global PaymentsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. In 2025, it grew its team by nearly 50% and opened in Singapore.
What could go wrong? Competitors are circling, though few target the same customers.
PQShield, a UK firm with over $63 million in funding, embeds post-quantum cryptography into chips and firmware rather than bank-facing apps. HYPR offers passwordless authentication but skips post-quantum architecture, while Post-Quantum focuses on VPNs and communications.
The wider risk: adoption depends on banks acting before 2029, and many still treat the quantum threat as distant.
The signal: Lead investor Seventure Partners previously backed IDnow — the company that acquired Norlain and Despagne's ARIADNEXT in 2021 — meaning the same capital and founder network is now reassembling around Wultra's early-stage post-quantum bet. With Elevator Ventures, the venture arm of Raiffeisen Bank International, also returning, the round signals that banks themselves are starting to fund the defences they will need before Gartner's 2029 deadline.
Read more: Tech Funding News
Image credit: Wultra
