Cairo-founded cybersecurity startup Raspire has been accepted into Y Combinator's Spring 2026 batch, bringing a no-code runtime application protection platform that is already securing apps used by more than 20 million end users globally.
Raspire was co-founded by Hassan Mostafa and Kareem Selim, who spent years building and securing applications for banks and fintech companies before identifying a gap they believe the incumbent cybersecurity industry has largely ignored: post-deployment application security.
Traditional security tooling focuses heavily on backend infrastructure and pre-deployment vulnerability scanning, but once an application is live and running on user devices, particularly mobile apps handling payments, sensitive data or high-risk transactions, the protection layer thins out considerably.
That gap has widened as the pace of software development has accelerated, with what the industry has started calling "vibe coding" enabling faster launches but introducing new runtime vulnerabilities that existing tools were not designed to catch.
Raspire's platform allows engineering teams to add runtime protection to their applications without requiring complex integrations, specialised security teams or changes that slow down release cycles. The company targets regulated industries where compliance and trust are non-negotiable, primarily banking, insurance, fintech and government services.
The startup has already been building commercial traction in the Gulf. Raspire exhibited at Black Hat MEA 2025 in Riyadh in December, where it announced a strategic partnership with Saudi-based Sadq to strengthen application security across the Kingdom as part of Saudi Arabia's broader digital transformation push. The company also presented at AI Everything MEA Egypt in Cairo in February 2026.
Raspire is part of a small but growing cluster of Egyptian-founded cybersecurity startups now operating out of San Francisco. Strix, founded by Ahmed Allam, has built what is described as the most popular open-source penetration testing agent on GitHub. NexGuards, co-founded by Mohamed Sherif Noureldin and Youssef Abolatta, focuses on defending against GenAI-powered spear phishing attacks. The three companies represent an emerging Egyptian cybersecurity cohort in the Bay Area that has moved from regional consulting and services work into product-led, globally scalable companies backed by tier-one accelerators.
Selim credited YC partners Andrew Miklas and Nemil Dalal with supporting Raspire's entry into the programme. The company plans to use YC as a platform to accelerate international growth and access global investors as it scales beyond its initial MENA client base.
