Italian cybersecurity startup Exein has raised $270 million in a funding round led by Headline at a $1.7 billion valuation, making it a new European unicorn. The Rome-based company began with a focus on Internet of Things devices and is now positioning its technology as a security layer for physical AI, including AI-powered robots, drones, self-driving cars, sensors and smart appliances running models at the edge. Exein’s latest product, Photon, is a runtime security solution designed to prevent attacks at a device’s kernel level, the core layer that manages system operations. CEO and founder Gianni Cuozzo said the company’s approach is to enable devices to defend themselves whether or not they are connected to a secure network. Exein says it has worked with manufacturers and silicon vendors since its founding in 2018 and has secured more than 2 billion connected devices across aerospace, industrial automation, automotive manufacturing, energy, healthcare and semiconductors. The company said the latest round was significantly oversubscribed. Its valuation has risen thirty-fold since its Series B about two years ago and more than doubled since it raised equity and debt in December 2025, following its Series C earlier last year. Cuozzo said open-source AI models without guardrails are making attacks on physical devices easier and cheaper, while Exein has observed more machine-speed attacks. The company is training a foundational model for Physical AI security on machine data and telemetrics and plans to have it ready in the first quarter of 2027. Exein plans to use the new funding for acquisitions and other M&A activity, product development, and hiring to accelerate expansion in the United States and Asia Pacific, which currently generates half its revenue. Cuozzo identified operating across three continents as the company’s main challenge and said Exein is growing 400% year on year. The European Union’s Cyber Resilience Act could support demand for Exein’s services: its reporting obligations began last week, and the law is due to take full effect in December 2027, requiring manufacturers to ensure digital products are safe from cyber threats.