Equixly Raises €10 Million to Solve the Billion-Dollar API Security Crisis With Its Autonomous Agentic AI Hackers

• Equixly’s proprietary AI agents think and act like human hackers to automate API testing and spot the hidden, complex security flaws legacy tools can’t reach
• Founded by IT and cybersecurity veterans from IBM, UniCredit and Accenture, Equixly is tackling a problem that cost businesses globally $200B a year
• Already trusted by leading European banks, insurers, and payment giants, Equixly’s funding will fuel expansion and advance its AI models

Tuesday, 9 December, 2025: Equixly – the agentic AI hacking platform tackling the $200 billion crisis at the heart of API security – has raised €10 million in Series A funding led by 33N Ventures, joined by Alpha Intelligence Capital, with additional participation from existing investors JME Ventures, 360 Capital and the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze. The funding will be used to grow the team, develop its proprietary AI models and accelerate global expansion, starting with the launch of a UK Sales and Marketing presence early next year.

The $200 billion API crisis

Founded in 2022 by brothers, serial entrepreneurs and IBM, UniCredit and Accenture alumni Mattia Dalla Piazza and Alessio Dalla Piazza, Equixly is a penetration testing platform built for the scale and complexity of today’s API-driven web.

APIs generate more than half of all web traffic and the average enterprise manages anywhere from 500 to 2,500 APIs. They’ve become the fastest-growing battleground for hackers – 44% of malicious bots already target APIs – and attacks are set to rise 548% by 2030. In 2025 alone, API attacks have cost global businesses ~$200 billion. As organisations increasingly rely on APIs, securing them has never been more critical but threats are evolving faster and with greater complexity than existing testing methods can handle.

Manual penetration testing is thorough but costly and can’t keep up with the pace of innovation; automated scanners are quick and easy to run but miss complex flaws like business-logic attacks, where hackers infiltrate workflows to steal data, hijack accounts and drain funds. This has left organisations facing a trade-off between scalability and security.

Security and scalability without sacrifice

Equixly spots up to 80% more vulnerabilities than standard Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tools at the point of development and, by mapping a company’s entire API application, Equixly’s approach can uncover the 10–20% of “shadow” endpoints enterprises often don’t know about, while still keeping false positives below 1%, freeing teams to focus on fixing real issues instead of chasing ghosts.

Equixly does this through proprietary AI agents that continuously identify vulnerabilities across the entire development lifecycle and automate complex API security testing. The platform embeds into existing systems, making it compliant and secure by design, and integrates testing directly into CI/CD pipelines.

Once embedded, Equixly’s agents keep a constant watch, learning the context-specific ways each piece of software is used, reconstructing its logic, and running focused attack simulations to uncover weaknesses, just as a skilled hacker would.

This allows Equixly to flag issues to teams in real time – empowering developers and security alike to fix early, reduce costs, and strengthen resilience – and means it can identify deep, complex, business-logic and edge use cases; spotting hidden and emerging threats in places traditional scanners can’t reach, or don’t even know to check.

Equixly was among the first to highlight the emerging risks of Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers as one example, and this approach is only set to become ever more critical as AI-generated code accelerates development and widens the attack surface in ways traditional security tools can’t keep up with.

Award-winning and trusted

Equixly is trusted by a growing group of European businesses, across banking, energy, insurers and retail, helping them to strengthen and future-proof their systems, in the face of evolving threats. It was recently recognised in multiple 2025 Gartner Hype Cycles; was named one of Italy’s top deep-tech startups by BCG and UniCredit; and joined the 2025 Google for Startups Growth Academy for global companies using AI to strengthen digital defences.

Mattia Dalla Piazza, CEO and co-founder of Equixly said: “Enterprises can no longer rely on static or occasional testing to secure their systems that serve millions of customers and increasingly drive global markets. With new regulations pending, and with API growth soaring, demand for autonomous security is only going to become more important. Equixly is making advanced security testing continuous, autonomous, and accessible to every development and security team. With agentic AI infrastructure and models fully built in-house, teams get the human-level reasoning they need, at the scale modern software demands, while ensuring maximum control over data and preserving privacy.”

Gonçalo Borges from 33N Ventures said: “Equixly is building the security layer for modern software, where development is transformed by AI, and infrastructure is defined by APIs. Its solution augments application security teams by providing a scalable, contextual and real-time solution, while uncovering vulnerabilities that traditional vendors often miss. This team is set to lead the charge among Europe’s cybersecurity innovators and become a global category leader in the next generation of application security.”

About Equixly

Equixly is a deep-tech cybersecurity company that automates API security testing through agentic AI. Its autonomous testing platform identifies complex business-logic vulnerabilities, enabling enterprises to scale security with software development. Equixly is backed by 33N Ventures, 360 Capital, Alpha Intelligence Capital, and JME Ventures, and recognised by Gartner, UniCredit and BCG for its pioneering work in agentic AI security testing.

Mattia Dalla Piazza

CEO & FOUNDER

Mattia's fascination with cybersecurity began in the early 2000s during his school days when he discovered vulnerabilities in school systems. With over 15 years in the Information Technology domain, he has built a notable career that includes leadership roles, such as heading a System Engineering Centre of Excellence for UniCredit Bank and being an International IT Manager at IBM. Mattia's expertise also extended to a NASDAQ-listed company, where he oversaw the management of its data centers as a System Engineer. Mattia is well-known for his ability in information network design, security, and infrastructure architecture. His robust problem-solving skills and forward-thinking vision underscore his commitment to enhancing service efficiency and fortifying his clients' security posture.