Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) announced on 4 May 2026 it has acquired a minority stake in Bug Bounty Switzerland AG (BBS) as a Long-Term Investment, drawing on its own balance sheet.

The transaction is part of a capital increase led by Direttissima Growth Partners, a European growth equity investor.

BBS, founded in Lucerne in 2020, operates the Cyber Resilience Shield, a cybersecurity testing platform that combines over 16,000 vetted ethical hackers with AI agents to deliver continuous exposure assessments.

It serves 52 customers, including the Swiss National Cyber Security Centre and companies in financial services, defence and critical infrastructure.

The founders hold a majority of the shares.

DBAG’s Long-Term Investment strategy targets minority stakes with flexible holding periods; this is its seventh such investment.

The capital will support BBS’s growth, including organisational professionalisation, growth in Switzerland, and entry into German-speaking and Italian markets.

A Houlihan Lokey study cited in the announcement forecasts the global cybersecurity testing market to grow from $14.7 billion in 2024 to $43.9 billion in 2029, fuelled by regulation and widening AI-related attack surfaces.