Showpad co-founder Louis Jonckheere to lead Aikido US push
Louis Jonckheere, the entrepreneur behind Showpad and Wintercircus, has joined Aikido Security to spearhead its expansion into North America as General Manager for the US.
US expansion
Jonckheere co-founded Showpad and led the company to surpass USD $100 million in revenue, establishing it as one of Europe's major B2B SaaS firms. He is recognised for his experience in building and scaling software companies globally, especially in navigating the US market. His arrival at Aikido Security underscores the company's bid to grow its footprint outside Europe.
Leadership perspective
"Louis joining Aikido is a major validation of the trajectory we are on. He has his pick of the best companies in Europe, and very few operators have his experience scaling a product globally and breaking into the US market. There are only a handful of people in European SaaS with that kind of track record. His decision to come aboard says a lot about the scale of the opportunity ahead of us and strengthens our position as one of Europe's most ambitious and fastest growing security companies," said Roeland Delrue, Chief Executive, Aikido Security.
Jonckheere described Aikido as entering a period of opportunity. "Aikido is entering one of the most exciting phases a company can reach. The product strength, the momentum and the scale of the opportunity in North America are all unique. I have spent my career building and scaling global SaaS companies, and Aikido has everything it needs to become the next one. I am ready to help drive this next chapter," said Jonckheere.
Growth trajectory
Aikido Security was founded in Ghent in 2022. The firm focuses on reducing complexity caused by fragmented security tools, with offerings in code security, cloud security, runtime protection, and autonomous penetration testing. The company protects more than 50,000 organisations, including Revolut, SoundCloud, Niantic, Visma, Montblanc, and GoCardless. Aikido has been recognised as the top company in TechRound Cybersecurity 40 and placed second in Sifted's Fastest Growing European Startups listing.
The company has demonstrated strong growth since its inception. Monthly revenue rose by 20 percent over the past year, achieving annual recurring revenue in the double-digit millions within two years. Revenue compounded at a 1,530 percent annual growth rate.
President Emmanuel Macron selected Aikido as one of six startups to meet out of 14,000 at an international technology event in 2025, further raising the company's profile.
Product development
Aikido accelerated its product roadmap through acquisitions in 2025. In August, the company acquired Trag, an AI native code quality platform, expanding its capability to detect vulnerabilities in AI-generated code. In September, acquisitions of Haicker and Allseek strengthened Aikido's autonomous penetration testing product, Aikido Attack, which uses multiple specialised agents to perform penetration testing across web applications and APIs. The company reports that internal tests show this system can match manual penetration testing depth while operating much faster.
Research contributions
Aikido has contributed to supply chain security research, identifying several significant vulnerabilities in the npm ecosystem over the past year. These discoveries, such as the S1ngularity dependency confusion attack and the React-Native-Aria trojan, highlighted the capabilities of large language model driven intelligence in speeding up vulnerability discovery and reporting.
