Aikido Security, the Ghent cybersecurity unicorn, has acquired Outkept, a company from the same Belgian city that provides email security, phishing simulations and security awareness training. Aikido disclosed the deal on October 20, 2026, alongside the launch of Noon, a platform for protecting employees rather than code.
Aikido said the acquisition closed in September. Terms were not disclosed. It also announced that it had bought Cyberly, a Warsaw startup that builds AI-driven attack simulations, and the two acquired teams are the foundation of Noon.
Outkept's website now carries the banner "OutKept joins Aikido Security: introducing Noon". Its co-founders, Simon Bauwens and Thibaut De Maerteleire, will lead Noon's global partnerships with managed service providers and its email-security development.
What Outkept built
Outkept is based in Ghent, according to its website. Aikido's announcement says its team had spent nearly a decade working on email security and phishing awareness training.
The company sold phishing simulations, security awareness training and email protection to organisations of different sizes. Before the deal it served more than 1,000 organisations and 250,000 users across more than 100 countries, according to Aikido.
Outkept's funding history was not reported, and neither company disclosed its headcount.
“AI has fundamentally changed how we need to train and protect employees. What worked five years ago simply isn't enough anymore.”
Why Aikido is buying
Aikido was founded in Ghent in 2022 and grew by selling application security tools that scan code and cloud setups for vulnerabilities. It reached a valuation of more than $1 billion in January, and says more than 150,000 teams use its software, including SoundCloud, Niantic, Runway, Handshake and Deel.
Noon takes the company into a different market: protecting staff from phishing, deepfakes and other scams that target people instead of systems. Outkept brings an existing customer base and a channel of IT service providers; Cyberly brings AI-driven simulations and tools that show how employees use AI.
"AI has fundamentally changed how we need to train and protect employees," Bauwens said in the announcement. "What worked five years ago simply isn't enough anymore. Joining forces with Cyberly and Aikido gives us the opportunity to rethink workforce security and bring a new generation of protection to organizations of all sizes."
What Noon offers
Noon bundles email protection, attack simulations and training, device protection and AI governance. Simulations include deepfake voice calls, SMS, QR codes and multi-step campaigns, and lessons are delivered in Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google Chat.
It connects to Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack and Teams, and Aikido says it helps customers with audits under SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIS2, DORA, HIPAA and GDPR. It is sold under its own brand.
Willem Delbare, Aikido's chief executive, said companies need to protect not only the software they build but "the people building and using it", and described Noon as "one platform, less complexity, and protection for every employee, not just those building software."
What comes next
The deal keeps Outkept's team in Ghent, where Aikido is headquartered, while Cyberly's team stays in Warsaw. Aikido also bought Root, another security startup, in June.
Putting Outkept's founders in charge of partnerships with managed service providers suggests Aikido intends to sell Noon through IT service firms as well as directly. Aikido did not say how many Outkept employees joined or whether the Outkept brand will remain in use once customers move to Noon.
Aikido is betting that generative AI has made older phishing-training formats less effective, because scams can now be written, voiced and personalised at scale. Security awareness training is an established market, and Noon will compete with specialist vendors that have sold simulations and courses to companies for years.
For Outkept's customers, the main change is that the training and email protection they use will become part of a broader product that also covers devices and employees' use of AI tools.
