During the Hard2beat Connect conference, Hard2beat VC announced its first three investments, including a PLN 3 million pre-seed round for Defguard Sp. z o.o., a Polish cybersecurity startup with a bold mission: to provide secure, transparent, and locally hosted alternatives to foreign cloud-based security tools.
What is Defguard?
Defguard is the creator of the first open-source platform that enables companies to securely connect employees to internal systems via a private VPN tunnel, enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA), and automatically track who has access to which systems and when. This makes it possible even for heavily regulated organizations to protect their data without relying on closed-source, foreign cloud services.
How Defguard Works
In many companies, access management is a patchwork of disconnected tools: VPNs are used only for network access, identity systems are out of sync with real employment status, and access rights are often handled manually—leading to serious security risks. Common consequences include active accounts of former employees, access loopholes, and exposure to unauthorized data breaches.
Defguard streamlines this process by integrating three critical security layers into one solution:
- A secure VPN built on the fast and modern WireGuard protocol,
- Identity and Access Management (IAM) for user account control,
- Access Lifecycle Management (ALM) to assign and revoke permissions in a structured way.
Technological Advantage
Defguard is the first solution on the market to integrate MFA directly into the WireGuard protocol—a feature missing from most modern VPNs. This breakthrough makes it suitable for high-security environments and significantly enhances the native security capabilities of WireGuard.
As an open-source platform, Defguard offers full code transparency, auditability, and freedom from vendor lock-in, presenting a compelling alternative to large, proprietary U.S.-based cloud platforms.
Trusted by Public and Private Institutions
Already, public and private institutions across Europe are using Defguard to replace foreign VPN and IAM services. Because the solution can be hosted locally, it complies with internal security policies, industry-specific regulations, and gives organizations full control over their IT assets and data.
PLN 5.2 Million Funding Round
The total funding round amounted to PLN 5.2 million (approx. €1.2 million), led by Hard2beat VC. Other participants included SMOK Ventures and S20 Team, along with prominent angel investors from the cybersecurity and IT sectors. Notable names include:
- Łukasz Jesis, founder of Xopero, a leading European backup and recovery company;
- Piotr and Tomasz Karwatka, serial entrepreneurs and highly active angel investors in the CEE region;
- Founders of ISEC, cybersecurity and penetration testing specialists.
Strategic Investment in Europe’s Digital Sovereignty
“Defguard is hitting the market at just the right time—when Europe and other regions are urgently seeking transparent, self-hosted cybersecurity tools,” said Maciej Zawadziński, managing partner at Hard2beat VC. “Their MFA-for-WireGuard technology combined with early open-source traction is a rare combination. As a deep tech fund, we’re excited to support it.”
