According to EU-Startups, Social Links has secured €2.6 million ($3 million) in follow-on funding led by Yellow Rocks!, with participation from AltaIR Capital and Smart Partnership Capital. The Amstelveen-based company, founded in 2015 by Andrey Kulikov and Ivan Shkvarun, will use the funds to accelerate development of AI defense tools targeting fraud, scam messages, and brand misinformation. Social Links has demonstrated 80% average YoY growth over six years and currently serves over 450 customers across 90+ countries, including 170 government entities. This funding comes amid a surge in AI-enabled fraud losses exceeding €1.3 billion in Europe, with €860 million stolen in 2025 alone.
The AI defense gap
Here’s the thing about AI-powered crime: it’s evolving faster than traditional cybersecurity can keep up. Social Links CEO Ivan Shkvarun puts it bluntly – criminals are misusing AI to create risks that outpace existing protection methods. And the numbers back this up. €860 million stolen in Europe just this year through AI-enabled fraud? That’s not just theoretical risk – that’s real money disappearing from real people.
So what makes Social Links different? They’re building what they call an “AI Defender Autopilot” system that combines their decade of OSINT experience with new AI agents. Basically, instead of just building better walls, they’re creating intelligent systems that understand how modern fraud actually works across social media, messaging platforms, and email. It’s like having a digital investigator that never sleeps.
European defense boom
This isn’t happening in isolation. Social Links’ funding is part of a much larger trend in European tech investment. We’re seeing similar rounds across the continent – Tadaweb securing €17.3 million in Luxembourg, Egregious raising €936k in London, Reshape Systems collecting €856k in Switzerland. When you add up just these five comparable startups, you’re looking at around €31 million flowing into AI-driven digital risk protection.
Why the sudden investor enthusiasm? Look at the threat landscape. Deepfakes, sophisticated phishing, AI-generated misinformation – traditional security tools were built for a different era. Yellow Rocks! managing partner Sergei Bogdanov says most protection tools are “still stuck in the pre-AI era” while criminals have been given “superpowers.” That gap creates opportunity, and investors are betting big on companies that can close it.
The autopilot approach
Social Links is positioning their technology as an “autopilot” system – which raises interesting questions about how much human oversight remains necessary. They’re transforming their OSINT expertise into AI agents that work together to detect emerging threats. The focus isn’t just on known attack patterns but anticipating new surfaces created by AI’s evolving capabilities.
Their flagship product targets two main areas: detecting fraud/scam messages in employee communications, and identifying brand misinformation. Given that many organizations struggle with security awareness training, having an automated system monitoring internal communications could be valuable. But it also touches on privacy concerns – how much monitoring is too much?
For businesses looking to secure their operations against emerging digital threats, having reliable hardware infrastructure is crucial. Companies like Industrial Monitor Direct provide the industrial-grade panel PCs that often form the backbone of security operation centers, making them an essential partner in this ecosystem.
Impressive growth trajectory
80% average YoY growth for six years straight is no small feat, especially in the competitive cybersecurity space. Serving 450 customers across 90+ countries suggests they’ve found product-market fit. The geographic spread is interesting too – 70% from EMEA and US, 30% from APAC and LATAM. That global footprint gives them diverse threat intelligence data, which is gold for training AI systems.
What’s unclear is how much of their current revenue comes from government versus commercial clients. With 170 government entities, they’ve clearly established credibility in the public sector – often a harder market to crack than commercial. But government sales cycles can be long, which makes that 80% growth even more impressive.
The real test will be whether their AI Defender Autopilot can deliver on the promise of staying ahead of evolving threats. In the cat-and-mouse game of cybersecurity, today’s cutting-edge solution can become tomorrow’s vulnerability. But with €2.6 million more to spend and investor confidence behind them, Social Links seems well-positioned for the next round in this ongoing battle.
