Italy's Exein Raises $270 Million for Physical AI Security, Hits $1.7B Valuation

The round was led by Headline, with participation from Goldman Sachs, Sofina, the European Investment Bank Group (through ETCI), KfW Capital and T.Capital. Existing investors including Balderton, HV, Intrepid Growth Partners, 33N Ventures, Lakestar, Supernova Invest, Blue Cloud Ventures and Geodesic Capital also took part. According to Ventureburn, the round was oversubscribed. Alongside the equity, Exein expanded an existing revolving credit facility led by J.P. Morgan, with KfW joining as an additional lender.

The company focuses on what it calls Physical AI security: protecting machines that use AI to perceive, decide and act in the physical world, such as robots, drones and autonomous vehicles. EU-Startups reported that the funding will support Exein's expansion in the United States and the APAC region.

Founder and CEO Gianni Cuozzo told EU-Startups that AI is moving out of the cloud and into the physical world, and that this is the transition Exein was built for. He added that attacks now happen at machine speed, so defense has to as well.