This Startup Just Raised $10M to Fix Your IT Headaches

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-07

Netsec, a European cybersecurity and managed IT provider, just raised more than $10 million (€8.93 million) in equity funding. That's a big vote of confidence for a company that didn't even exist a year ago. And it might just change how mid-market companies handle their IT and security. ### Who's Behind the Big Bet? The round was led by Paris-based Partech, with Primo Capital and View Different (the investment vehicle of former Amazon exec Diego Piacentini) chipping in. Other backers include Riccardo Zacconi, Kima Ventures, Ithaca Investments, Vento, Vito Lomele, Everywhere Ventures, and a crew of angel investors from cybersecurity and tech. So why all the excitement? Réza Malekzadeh, General Partner at Partech, put it simply: "Managed services have always scaled with headcount. Netsec breaks that link, pairing a single operator with automation that absorbs the volume work." In other words, they're using tech to do the heavy lifting so humans can focus on what matters. ### The Brains Behind the Operation Netsec was founded in 2025 by Gianluca Varisco and Guglielmo Reina. The two first teamed up at Rocket Internet. Varisco went on to lead security at Arduino and Italy's Digital Transformation Team before becoming a Principal Security Architect at Google Cloud. Reina moved into tech investing at Global Founders Capital and 468 Capital. Together, they bring deep expertise in both cybersecurity and building venture-scale companies. ### What Netsec Actually Does Netsec operates the entire IT and security stack for its clients through a unified control plane. That covers device management, identity, networking, infrastructure, security operations, help desk, and cloud. On the IT side, they offer: - Mobile device management (MDM) - Remote monitoring and management - SaaS subscription optimization - Enterprise networking On the cybersecurity side, they provide vCISO-grade strategy, cloud security, 24/7 security operations, managed detection and response, incident response, compliance support (NIS2, DORA, ISO 27001, SOC 2), and penetration testing. The company says it can go live within a week by ingesting a client's existing stack, mapping gaps, and taking over the operator seat. ### The Problem They're Solving Mid-market European companies often manage their IT and security across a mess of disconnected vendors. Each has its own portal, contract, and escalation process. Netsec aims to replace that fragmentation with a single operator covering the full stack—from onboarding and offboarding to SaaS management, patching, and audit evidence. And here's a neat twist: the service is delivered through Slack or Microsoft Teams and priced per employee per month, starting at about $20 (€19). That's a departure from the usual per-ticket or per-hour billing. ### Traction and Plans "We built Netsec so mid-market companies get the security and IT operations of a much larger organization without having to build them in-house," said Varisco, co-founder and CEO. "Today, after just a year of activity, we manage thousands of endpoints for clients across Europe and the United States. We run an incident response retainer with a median response time under 14 minutes across thousands of tickets received as of today." Incorporated in France as Barbican SAS and headquartered in France and Italy, Netsec holds ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certifications. The new capital will be used to build out their automation and integration layer and accelerate growth across Europe and the United States. ### Why This Matters for You If you're running a mid-sized company, you know how painful it is to juggle multiple IT and security vendors. Netsec's approach could streamline everything into one place, potentially saving time and money. Plus, their per-employee pricing makes budgeting predictable. With this fresh funding, they're poised to scale and maybe become the go-to solution for mid-market IT and security. Keep an eye on them.