en.Wedoany.com Reported - Aikido Security has acquired Israeli cybersecurity company Root, with the purchase price undisclosed; according to Israeli media Calcalist, the transaction amount is between $70 million and $100 million. The Ghent-based cybersecurity company became Europe's fastest to reach a $1 billion valuation in January this year. Aikido will also open a research and development center in Israel and plans to absorb approximately 25 Root employees, most of whom are based in Tel Aviv.
The problem Root addresses is the widespread presence of vulnerabilities in open-source code. Almost all software relies on open-source packages, and the Log4Shell vulnerability discovered in 2021 still lurks in millions of systems. When a dependency has a vulnerability, teams face a dilemma between upgrading, which could break the application, or undergoing a lengthy migration. According to SiliconANGLE, Root's platform runs a large number of AI agents that can research, write, test, and deploy patches within 15 to 40 minutes, whereas the same work done manually could take weeks. Its patches are applied directly to the exact version the company is currently running, without requiring refactoring or migration. In over 80% of cases, Root does not modify the code at all, with human reviewers signing off on patches rather than writing them. Aikido integrates this functionality into its platform as a feature called "Aikido Libraries." Customer data security company BigID cleared over 1,000 vulnerabilities within two weeks of using it, including more than 300 classified as high or critical severity, across six production images, without altering the existing tech stack.
The timing of this acquisition is related to AI changing the nature of attacks. Attackers now launch attacks on or before the day nearly one-third of known vulnerabilities are disclosed. Root's intelligent agent approach provides defenders with response times within minutes, a speed that intruders already possess. From popular packages implanted with malware, intrusions that leak AI training secrets, to security vulnerabilities piling up around the rapidly evolving "vibe-coding" platforms, security threats have emerged in the software supply chain. Aikido's bet is that using intelligent agents against intelligent agents is the only way to keep pace.
Beyond the acquisition, Aikido announced it will provide backport patches for critical, actively exploited open-source vulnerabilities and give them back to the community, rather than placing them behind a paywall. Root co-founder and CEO Ian Riopel stated that this is "a choice between a walled garden and truly supporting open source," and they chose open source. NodeSource CTO and OpenJS board member Adrian Estrada noted that maintainers are overwhelmed by security work, and these backport patches alleviate their burden.
Root, originally named Slim.AI, was the company behind the open-source container tool Slim Toolkit, before shifting its business from shrinking container images to securing them. Root has raised approximately $37.6 million in cumulative funding and was named an emerging vendor for automated vulnerability remediation by Gartner this year. For Aikido, the acquisition caps a busy 2025, following its purchases of AI code review company Trag, autonomous penetration testing companies Allseek and Haicker. The deal also highlights that global cybersecurity talent remains highly concentrated in Israel, with European buyers increasingly writing checks. Aikido currently serves over 100,000 teams, including Revolut, SoundCloud, and the Premier League.
