A Belgian cybersecurity unicorn has bought an Israeli startup with an unusual trick. Its AI agents fix an open-source flaw without breaking the app that depends on it, something most security tools cannot do.
Aikido Security, based in Ghent, became Europe’s fastest cybersecurity company to reach a $1bn valuation in January. It has now acquired Root. Aikido did not disclose a price. Israeli outlet Calcalist reported a figure of between $70mn and $100mn. Aikido will also open a development centre in Israel. It plans to absorb all of Root’s roughly 25 staff, most of them in Tel Aviv.
The target is a problem every software company knows and few have solved. Open source is everywhere, and it is full of holes. Almost every application leans on open-source packages, which makes them a favourite way in for attackers. Log4Shell, the critical bug found in Log4j back in 2021, still runs in millions of systems today.
Patching without the pain
Fixing these flaws is meant to be simple and rarely is. When a dependency turns out to be vulnerable, a team’s choices are both bad. Upgrade to a newer version, and you risk breaking a working app or pulling in fresh malware. Migrate to a vendor’s locked-down replacement, and you have swapped one dependency for another. That often takes months of work.
