Two cybersecurity startups, Zero Code and Pentest Copilot, have been selected from over 80 teams that participated in Innovation Labs 2024 to receive a total of EUR 500,000 in funding from Early Game Ventures. 

Both startups are active in cybersecurity, a technological sector that requires continuous innovation due to the increasingly complex global security landscape, influenced by geopolitical activities and the advancement of artificial intelligence. 

The first company, Pentest Copilot, will receive an investment of EUR 150,000. The startup specializes in automating the writing of penetration testing reports, aiming to reduce the costs and time that companies and software engineers allocate to this activity. Pentest Copilot's technical solution also allows for the evaluation of the quality of penetration tests conducted by each software engineer, as well as the creation of other useful analyses and reports for cybersecurity companies. 

The funding is the first time a venture capital fund has decided to invest in a team of founders who are still in high school. Bogdan Munteanu, Alexandru Antal, and Remus Rughiniș, the three founders of Pentest Copilot, were the youngest participants at Innovation Labs 2024, being 11th-grade students at Laude-Reut High School. 

"We decided to invest in a very young but absolutely amazing team. These 11th-grade students have invested time and effort, spent days and nights at Innovation Labs hackathons, and created an innovative technological service in an elite industry like cybersecurity," said Dan Călugăreanu, Partner at Early Game Ventures. 

The second startup, Zero Code, will receive an investment of EUR 350,000. This company automates the cybersecurity audit process using AI. Darius Moldovan, Flavius Moldovan, and Alex Baciu, the founders of Zero Code, are experienced software engineers in the field of cybersecurity. 

The first version of the Zero Code product will be available as early as next month for those who want to test it.

"The cybersecurity industry is one of Early Game's investment priorities, and cybersecurity audit services are extremely necessary in the market. The integration of AI to accelerate the security audit, the founders' very pragmatic approach, and the focus on creating a useful, easy-to-use, and efficient tool convinced us to invest in Zero Code. But the most important factor was, of course, the quality and dedication of the team," said Florin Vișa, Partner at Early Game Ventures. 

"As the software industry grows rapidly, code vulnerabilities are becoming more common and problematic. Our product is designed to facilitate automatic vulnerability scanning in a short time with informative reports," said Darius Moldovan, founder of Zero Code. 

The two startups were selected from the 16 finalist teams of Innovation Labs for their business potential and the quality of their founding teams. These 16 finalists were chosen from over 80 teams that entered Innovation Labs nationally, following the hackathons in March. 

Recently, the Early Game team announced the official launch of Early Game Fund II, the second EGV investment fund, which will have a total of EUR 60 million to invest in areas such as cybersecurity, developer tools, enterprise software, and more.

radu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: the company)