MON5, an Italian start-up specializing in the development of vertical cybersecurity solutions for Operational Technology (OT) industrial environments, has announced the closure of a round of financing worth over €1.7 million, consisting of a capital increase of €1.4 million and a conversion of financial instruments linked to two acceleration programs, SkyDeck Europe and Cloud Accelerator.
The round was led by Primo Capital, through its Primo Space fund, alongside Forward Factory, the digital manufacturing program of CDP Venture Capital's National Accelerator Network, managed by Gellify.
In addition to Primo Capital, the start-up's growth has been supported by acceleration and support programs carried out with the Innovative Companies Incubator of Politecnico di Torino (I3P), Forward Factory (Gellify and CDP Venture Capital), SkyDeck Europe, Cloud Accelerator, Open Innovation by Leonardo Spa, and Fit4Start Luxembourg. MON5 is currently based at BiRex Bologna, a competence center that has provided the infrastructure to test the solution and identify the first customers for POC and further testing.
The start-up's project
MON5 was founded by Andrea Giovine, Andrea Melis, Gabriele Garavini and Roberto Pasi, a team with vertical expertise in IT and OT cybersecurity, complemented by solid managerial skills gained in complex industrial and technological contexts.
The young company has developed a vertical solution for monitoring OT industrial environments, designed to offer complete visibility of production facilities and strengthen their security in a context of increasing machine interconnection and technological complexity. Digitization processes and Industry 4.0 programs have significantly expanded the attack surface for hackers targeting industrial systems, making OT cybersecurity a critical factor for the operational continuity of manufacturing companies and strategic public and defense companies.
With the arrival of new partners, MON5 aims to strengthen its development team, increasing the number of resources dedicated to the evolution of the technology platform, and to expand its commercial structure with the addition of new specialized figures. In the commercial sphere, expansion will also focus on the aerospace sector, where there is strong growth in demand for cybersecurity solutions to protect critical devices, infrastructure, and equipment.
The potential of the solution
The protection of manufacturing plants, critical infrastructure, and industrial systems is now a key element in ensuring operational continuity, national resilience, and technological autonomy for states and public institutions. The many hacker attacks targeting manufacturing facilities have recently shut down production departments in various industries (food, pharmaceuticals, metalworking, energy, etc.) and the facilities of strategic companies such as power plants, oil pipelines, telecommunications centers, water purification plants, etc.
Data released by Gartner confirms this trend: the cyber sector is growing steadily, and attacks on the manufacturing sector account for over 23% of global attacks. It is estimated that over 61% of attacks involved OT systems and facilities. Today, the MON5 platform is already capable of monitoring 95% of industrial protocols in Italy, a percentage that is constantly increasing week after week thanks to the research and development activities carried out by the team.
Among the basic features, but one of particular importance for companies that have connected their machinery in recent years, is automatic asset discovery, which allows you to automatically identify assets and connections between industrial machinery, while verifying compliance with the security requirements of the IEC 62443 standard. The first step in securing your business is to monitor and map the industrial assets present in the company: the MON5 Asset Discovery solution allows you to quickly and easily count the number of elements connected to the network, which is the first step towards NIS2 compliance and setting up a global industrial cyber strategy for the company.
The MON5 solution can be used directly by industrial companies to monitor and protect their production environments, but it can also be integrated with existing SOC (Security Operations Center) systems, which manage infrastructure security from outside the company. This approach enables coordinated management of IT and OT security, improving threat detection, response, and prevention capabilities.
In this scenario, the entry into force of the new European NIS2 regulation directly impacts an increasing number of Italian companies, which are required to adopt structured measures for cyber risk management and critical infrastructure protection. The MON5 solution provides a concrete approach to addressing some of the key aspects imposed by NIS2, supporting companies in their regulatory compliance efforts and in strengthening their operational resilience.
The investors' trust
"We strongly believe in the MON5 team, whose skills and vision we have come to appreciate during the acceleration process. The security of production facilities is no longer an option, but a necessity to ensure continuity and competitiveness for businesses, with increasingly high standards: supporting solutions that simplify the achievement of this goal is a natural choice for us", said Stefano Molino, Head of the Accelerator Fund at CDP Venture Capital.
Ilaria Cavalleri, Investment Principal at Primo Space, commented: “Primo Space enriches its portfolio with MON5, a company operating in the cyber segment, now more than ever a sector of strategic importance for the space economy. The team effectively combines commercial skills and technical expertise, laying the foundations for strong growth in the coming years.”
"MON5's journey within SkyDeck Europe demonstrates how solid deep tech, applied to a concrete industrial need, can scale rapidly. During the acceleration program, the team strengthened its positioning and growth strategy, culminating today in the closing of a round that confirms the importance of OT cybersecurity for the protection of critical infrastructure", said Andrea Beretta, Senior Director, Startup Operations & Investments at Cariplo Factory, which managed the SkyDeck Europe acceleration program.
“We are delighted with this step forward for MON5, which brings essential resources for growth and new skills and networks. Securing strategic infrastructure and industrial plants is a mission and a challenge we want to overcome in order to realize the MON5 project and fulfill our responsibility to support and defend those who work every day and deserve peace of mind and protection”, commented the Founders of MON5. “Thanks to this step, we will be able to grow our company with new strategic figures and strengthen its commercial reach, providing Europe with Made in Italy technology that can make it safer and more autonomous in such a complex geopolitical context.”
