RIFFSEC Is the Only Polish Cybersecurity Startup Chosen by Google

Google announced on July 8 the lineup of the second cohort of its Gemini Startup Forum: Cybersecurity program, selecting 33 startups from around the world for a year-long mentoring cycle with experts from Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, and Wiz. The only representative from Poland and all of Central Europe is Warsaw-based RIFFSEC, a platform for early detection of data leaks and online threats.

The Group of Thirty-Three

Gemini Startup Forum: Cybersecurity is Google's flagship accelerator program for digital security startups, aimed at companies ranging from seed stage to Series A. The second edition drew significantly more applicants than the first, from which Google selected 33 companies from the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Poland, and Spain.

The selected startups were grouped into six thematic areas: AI agent security and oversight, application security and vulnerability management, cloud and network infrastructure security, endpoint and data protection, security operations center automation, and specialized security infrastructure. Each company works on its development plan alongside specialists from Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, and Wiz, the Israeli company Google acquired earlier.

Startups are at the forefront of solving some of the world's most complex problems, especially in cybersecurity, where new ideas and the ability to adapt are always needed - Sandra Joyce, Vice President of Threat Intelligence at Google Threat Intelligence

Israel's Numerical Edge

The largest single group in the program consists of startups founded by Israelis - according to the Google Cloud Blog, nine of the thirty-three companies, including Capsule Security, Onyx Security, Mate Security, Native, and QIZ Security. Ynetnews, the first outlet to flag this proportion, described it as nearly a third of the entire group, pointing to the strong standing of Israel's cybersecurity sector despite a slowdown in the number of newly founded companies in the country.

The Israeli companies in the program focus mainly on securing autonomous AI agents - Capsule Security monitors agent activity, API calls, and tool usage in real time to detect unauthorized actions and data leaks, while Onyx Security offers a control layer for discovering and overseeing autonomous agents in enterprise environments.

A Warsaw Presence

RIFFSEC was placed in the security operations center automation and offensive security category, alongside the US-based Latent Defense and Sweden's Nrdsnipe. The Google Cloud Blog describes the company as a provider of an early-warning and attack-surface management platform tailored to the Central European market, monitoring the dark web, Telegram channels, and code repositories for leaks, exposed credentials, and phishing campaigns.

The company was founded by Maciej Broniarz, Adam Lange, and Konrad Latkowski, experts with years of experience in incident response and participation in the Locked Shields cyber defense exercises. RIFFSEC lists among its clients PZU, Poland's largest insurer, the Bank Guarantee Fund (Bankowy Fundusz Gwarancyjny), the CERT Polska team operating under NASK, the Stefan Batory Foundation, and Grupa Raben.

RIFFSEC's platform identifies phishing domains up to 72 hours before they appear on public blocklists, giving companies time to react before an attack reaches users. Its partnership with PZU, announced in the fall of 2025, included dark web monitoring for threats targeting the insurer's customers.

What This Means for the Polish Market

RIFFSEC's presence among just 33 startups selected from applications worldwide is a rare case of a Polish cybersecurity company working directly with the technical backbone of Google DeepMind and Wiz. The program does not provide direct funding, but it opens access to mentoring, Google Cloud resources, and a network already used by beneficiaries of earlier editions, such as Authologic and Crowdsec.

For Poland's AI and cybersecurity sector, it's a sign that local companies can compete for a spot alongside far better-funded rivals from Israel and the United States, where venture capital for cybersecurity flows at a much larger scale. RIFFSEC remains, for now, a relatively small player compared with the Israeli startups in the program, some of which have already held acquisition talks with major tech companies.

The next test for RIFFSEC will be maintaining its growth pace after the year-long mentoring program ends, and converting the contacts gained through Google Cloud into new clients beyond Poland, a market the company sees as a natural extension of its Central European base.