Zurich-based cybersecurity company Soverli has successfully raised €2.2 million ($2.6 million) in pre-Seed funding. The capital will be utilized to introduce a patent-pending sovereign smartphone architecture designed to run securely alongside existing mobile operating systems like Android and iOS.
About The Company
Soverli is an ETH Zurich spin-off founded to address the mission-critical reliance on standard mobile operating systems (OS) that organizations cannot fully control or audit. The company provides a patent-pending platform that effectively packs multiple, fully isolated phones into one physical device. Its methodology enables multiple operating systems to run in isolation simultaneously on a single commercial smartphone, essentially turning it into sovereign infrastructure.
Soverli’s core value proposition is enabling a fully sovereign, customizable, and auditable OS to run in parallel to Android—without any trade-offs. Users retain the full Android experience on one OS and can switch to the sovereign OS in milliseconds at the press of a button. As a technical demonstration, the company showcased the secure messaging app Signal running inside its isolated OS, protected even if the Android environment is compromised with malware, as the attack surface has been reduced by 500x.
Funding Details
The €2.2 million pre-Seed funding round was led by Founderful, with backing from the ETH Zurich Foundation and Venture Kick, alongside prominent figures from the cybersecurity industry. This follows an earlier investment of €161k secured from Venture Kick in September.
Ivan Puddu, co-founder and CEO of Soverli, articulated the company’s paradigm shift: “Availability is mission-critical, yet organisations still rely on operating systems they cannot control or audit. We built a fully-auditable smartphone sovereign layer that stays operational even when Android is compromised. Instead of hoping the OS never breaks, Soverli guarantees continuity if it does, without forcing users to give up the modern smartphone experience they expect.”
This funding round underscores the growing investor interest in identity, trust, and infrastructure-level cybersecurity solutions, positioning Soverli at the forefront of mobile security innovation.
Market Opportunity
The market for mobile security and sovereignty is gaining critical importance amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty and the rise of AI-driven systemic digital risk. Existing digital infrastructure, particularly commercial mobile devices, face unprecedented pressure, leading to a demand for military-grade security without sacrificing usability.
Soverli’s ability to offer sovereign-grade security without requiring any hardware modification, thereby being compatible with today’s commercial smartphones, gives it a unique market advantage. The first application is built for mission-critical communication, with ongoing public sector pilots involving organizations responsible for emergency response and critical infrastructure. Beyond this, its high-security features have garnered interest from journalists, human rights workers, and enterprises seeking to secure their bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs without the privacy trade-offs of traditional device management systems.
Use of Funds
With the newly secured capital, Soverli plans to accelerate three key areas. First, the company aims to grow its engineering team to bolster product development. Second, it will focus on extending compatibility to more smartphone models and strengthening integrations with mobile device management (MDM) systems. Finally, Soverli will work to scale partnerships with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to broaden the adoption of its secure, sovereign smartphone architecture globally.
