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Hadrian raises $40M for AI pen-testing; its 80%-faster claim is its own

Hadrian raises $40M for AI pen-testing; its 80%-faster claim is its own — Newsmesis editorial illustration
— Newsmesis AI illustration

What happened

Amsterdam-based Hadrian has raised $40 million, co-led by Forgepoint Capital International and Smartfin, bringing its total funding to $65 million. The company sells software that attacks a client's own systems the way a hacker would. Its Atlas product maps internet-facing assets and uses AI agents to separate real flaws from noise, and its Nova product runs automated penetration tests on request. The performance figures in the coverage, including 10 times as many critical risks found and fixes made 80% faster, come from Hadrian, not from an independent evaluation.

What we know

The Next Webthenextweb.comTech.eutech.eu
  • Forgepoint Capital International and Smartfin co-led the $40 million round, and existing investors HV Capital, Motive Partners, Picus Capital and Oetker Ventures also took part, per The Next Web and Tech.eu.
  • Total funding now stands at $65 million, per The Next Web. Earlier rounds were a €2.5 million pre-seed in 2021 and a €10.5 million seed in 2022 led by HV Capital.
  • Hadrian says it will use the money to expand in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the United States and to hire engineers and researchers, per The Next Web.
  • Named customers include McKesson, NBCUniversal, TotalEnergies, Amadeus, Leroy Merlin and Damen Shipyards, per The Next Web, which attributes the list to Hadrian.
  • Hadrian co-founded the company in 2021 with Olivier Beg and Maurice Clin. Fischer, the chief executive, previously co-founded the crypto exchange LiteBit, per The Next Web.

What we don't know yet

  • Whether the claims of 10 times more critical risks found, 80% faster fixes and five times the return of manual testing hold up. They are Hadrian's figures, and no independent test or customer data was cited.
  • The basis for Hadrian's statistics that 87% of firms still test by hand and that only 0.47% of flagged scanner findings are exploitable. The sources give no sample, method or date.
  • Hadrian's current revenue and valuation. Neither was disclosed in the sources, although Smartfin's Saumitra Dubey spoke of a path to 'a nine-figure revenue business'.

Why it matters

Security teams buying automated penetration testing are weighing vendor-reported speed and accuracy gains that have no independent benchmark yet, so the $40 million round adds capital for Hadrian's expansion but no new evidence for those figures.

Claims

  • ConfirmedHadrian raised $40 million in a round co-led by Forgepoint Capital International and Smartfin.
  • ConfirmedHadrian's total funding is now $65 million.
  • UnconfirmedCustomers find 10 times as many critical risks using Hadrian's platform.
  • UnconfirmedCustomers using Hadrian fix problems 80% faster than before.
  • UnconfirmedOnly 0.47% of the flaws flagged by scanning tools can actually be exploited by attackers.

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Why you can trust this story

60%

Source map · 2 outlets / 2 articles

How this credibility score is calculated

  • Source reliability
  • Corroboration
  • Primary source
  • Atom-verified claims
  • No contradiction
  • Settled
  • Claim attribution
  • AI disclosure

Atom-verified claims matched cited source text. Weights are fixed and explainable.

Human accountability

  • 2 independent origins / 2 sources
  • Drafted by the Newsmesis judgment agent (agent-cli); human approval required before publishing.

Verification ledger · 5

  • Claim: Hadrian raised $40 million in a round co-led by Forgepoint Capital International and Smartfin.
    Status: ConfirmedVerification trailVerifiedChecked by verification engine

    At least one extracted atom matched cited source full text.

  • Claim: Hadrian's total funding is now $65 million.
    Status: ConfirmedVerification trailVerifiedChecked by verification engine

    At least one extracted atom matched cited source full text.

  • Claim: Customers find 10 times as many critical risks using Hadrian's platform.
    Status: UnconfirmedVerification trailUnverifiedChecked by verification engine

    No atom-level source-text verification is available.

  • Claim: Customers using Hadrian fix problems 80% faster than before.
    Status: UnconfirmedVerification trailUnverifiedChecked by verification engine

    No atom-level source-text verification is available.

  • Claim: Only 0.47% of the flaws flagged by scanning tools can actually be exploited by attackers.
    Status: UnconfirmedVerification trailUnverifiedChecked by verification engine

    No atom-level source-text verification is available.

Update log · 0

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