Allseek and Haicker join Aikido to transform penetration testing into sub-hour automated assessments – News

Belgian cybersecurity company Aikido Security NV today announced the acquisition of two artificial intelligence-native security companies, Allseek BV and Haicker SA, to transform weeks-long pen tests into sub-hour automated assessments, enabling Aikido to capture a larger piece of the $6 billion penetration testing market.

Founded in 2021, Allseek was created by a team of ethical hackers and AI researchers and emerged from frustrations with the traditional penetration testing model — expensive, slow and ill-suited to modern development cycles. The company builds autonomous AI agents that continuously probe evolving infrastructure, simulating how attackers actually think and adapt, instead of relying on periodic human assessment.

Allseek’s platform maps real exploit paths in real time with agents that reason like adversaries, chain potential weaknesses and test whether an exploit could succeed under changing conditions. That allows organizations to see security exposures as they would appear to a real attacker, bridging the gap between periodic compliance exercises and day-to-day operational risk.

“Conventional pentests burn budgets and patience; merging with Aikido changes the game: instant, autonomous and finally democratized for every security crew,” said Wout Debaenst, co-founder and chief executive officer of Allseek. “From manually pentesting Aikido two years ago to partnering up and automating that entire pen-testing playbook, we’ve gone a long way and we’re looking forward to taking things to another level.”

Haicker, founded in 2023, specializes in capturing the creativity and adaptability of top-tier human attackers. The company’s systems are designed to reason dynamically by probing defenses, adjusting tactics mid-attack and discovering unconventional exploit paths. The approach reflects how competitive hackers operate in real contests, turning their intuition and persistence into machine-driven processes that can run continuously and at scale.

“The reason Haicker was created was because we want to make it possible to detect all security issues and fix them and AI pentesting is an essential part of that,” said founder Philippe Dourassov. “But to accomplish our vision, we needed a platform, not just a single product. Aikido represents exactly what we were going for. A solution that protects applications against attackers on all fronts. By teaming up, we are getting another step closer to making ‘unhackable’ possible.”

The acquisitions, Aikido said, bring complementary DNA to its “no bullshit” security platform.

Aikido’s automated penetration testing technology uses AI agents to “divide and conquer,” with some specializing in mapping the environment, others focusing on exploitation and others validating which vulnerabilities pose real threats. The agents adapt their tactics based on what they discover, just like a human pentester would — chaining together vulnerabilities to find attack paths that basic tools miss.

“By combining Allseek and Haicker’s autonomous testing capabilities with our existing platform, we’re moving from annual security snapshots to continuous testing that keeps pace with the AI era,” said Aikido founder and CEO Willem Delbare. “While AI agents handle the bulk of testing at scale, human experts can focus on creative, high-value vulnerabilities — the complex business logic flaws and sophisticated attack chains that require human intuition.”

Image: Aikido Security