Soverli, a cybersecurity company spun out of ETH Zurich, has raised USD 2.6 million in pre-seed funding to introduce a sovereign operating system layer that brings secure and convenient digital freedom to commercial smartphones.
By working alongside Android and iOS without requiring hardware changes, Soverli aims to make mobile digital sovereignty accessible to governments, enterprises, OEMs, and consumers.
The pre-seed funding round was led by Founderful, with participation from the ETH Zurich Foundation, Venture Kick, and prominent cybersecurity experts, reflecting strong validation from leaders in trusted computing and high-assurance systems.
Soverli Addresses the Last Frontier of Digital Sovereignty
Digital sovereignty has emerged as a strategic priority across Europe, driving large-scale investments in sovereign cloud, artificial intelligence, national networks, and secure communications.
However, smartphones – now central to daily life and critical infrastructure – remain largely opaque platforms governed by unauditable Android and iOS ecosystems.
This dependency exposes governments, emergency services, and essential industries to systemic risks, including large-scale outages and potential security vulnerabilities.
Soverli positions itself at the center of this challenge by introducing a sovereign smartphone architecture that operates independently while remaining fully compatible with existing mobile platforms.
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Soverli’s Parallel OS Architecture Enables True Mobile Sovereignty
Developed through more than four years of research at ETH Zurich, Soverli’s patent-pending methodology enables multiple operating systems to run simultaneously in isolation on a single smartphone.
This architecture transforms standard commercial devices into sovereign infrastructure. Users retain the complete Android experience while gaining access to a fully auditable and customizable sovereign OS that can be activated instantly without rebooting or sacrificing usability.
As a demonstration of its capabilities, Soverli showcased secure messaging by running Signal within its isolated sovereign OS.
By drastically reducing the attack surface and fully separating the application from Android, message confidentiality is preserved even if the primary operating system is compromised. Importantly, this level of protection is achieved on existing smartphones without limiting functionality.
Soverli Enables Mission-Critical Continuity and Secure Communication
The relevance of Soverli’s approach has intensified as governments and enterprises seek resilient digital infrastructure that ensures continuity during system failures or cyber incidents.
Traditional secure-phone solutions often require users to forgo features, restrict applications, or reboot between operating systems. Soverli eliminates these trade-offs by delivering sovereign-grade security alongside everyday smartphone convenience.
“Availability is mission-critical, yet organizations still rely on operating systems they cannot control or audit,” said Ivan Puddu, Co-founder and CEO of Soverli.
“We built a fully auditable sovereign layer that remains operational even when Android is compromised, ensuring continuity without forcing users to abandon the modern smartphone experience.”
Soverli Gains Momentum Across Public Sector and Enterprise Use Cases
Early prototypes developed at ETH Zurich attracted significant interest from government agencies, public-sector organizations, and enterprises seeking higher operational safety without locked-down devices.
This momentum increased as European smartphone manufacturers and integrators recognized the strategic importance of Soverli’s technology, leading to the company’s spin-out as an independent venture.
The company’s initial applications focus on mission-critical communication. Public-sector pilots are underway with organizations responsible for emergency response and critical infrastructure.
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In scenarios where Android fails due to misconfiguration or cyberattacks, the company’s isolated environment continues operating independently, ensuring uninterrupted communication for first responders such as police, firefighters, and emergency medical teams.
The same architecture supports journalists and human rights workers by enabling secure applications to function in environments invisible to attackers.
Enterprises are also evaluating Soverli for secure bring-your-own-device programs, allowing employees to maintain personal privacy while operating within a protected business workspace on the same device.
Soverli Plans to Scale Adoption Across Smartphones and OEMs
“People deserve phones they can actually trust, and OEMs must deliver it,” said Antonia Albert, Investor at Founderful. “Soverli’s Swiss-made sovereign layer represents a major breakthrough in mobile security.”
With the new funding, the company plans to expand its engineering team, extend compatibility across additional smartphone models, deepen integrations with mobile device management systems, and scale partnerships with OEMs.
