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Government contracts and corporate projects for first GCHQ accelerator graduates

The seven startups participating in the first-ever GCHQ Cyber Accelerator programme are to cap off their three-month journey with a Demo Day in Cheltenham today, after sealing contracts with government agencies and projects with corporate firms following their stint on the programme.

Launched in January as a collaboration between GCHQ, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Wayra UK, the corporate accelerator invited some of the UK’s most promising cybersecurity startups to take part in the first cohort.

Startups including London duo Spherical Defence and Status Today, alongside counterintelligence platform Countercraft, early-warning system Cyberowl, machine intelligence firm Elemendar, cyber security compliance platform Cybersmart, and digital wallet Verimuchme, have now all benefitted from mentoring, business services, and access to GCHQ expertise.

Such has been the success of the programme that five of the startups have already sealed contracts and partnerships following their participation, while others are now better positioned to capture new clients.

Gary Stewart, Director at Wayra UK and Telefónica Open Future_ (UK), said the programme had been a ‘textbook exercise’ in quickly accelerating the growth of early-stage companies.

He said: “We’ve been able to take our strengths and marry them to GCHQ’s world-leading cyber expertise, creating a perfect petri dish for these start-ups to scale.

“I’m immensely proud that we’ve been able to realise the promise of this collaboration, and enthused about moving the partnership forward in an even bigger and better way through a new call for cyber start-ups to join the programme.”

At today’s (March 30) demo day, Wayra, DCMS and GCHQ will also put out a call for startups to make up the programme’s second cohort as part of an extended accelerator later this year.

Minister of State for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock MP said:“Our recent Digital Strategy set out our ambition to create a world-leading digital economy that works for everyone and makes the UK the safest place to do business online.

“The Cyber Accelerator is helping to deliver this aim by supporting entrepreneurs and innovators as they turn great ideas into cyber security products and services, and I congratulate all those who have taken part in the first programme and contributed to its success.”

What they’re doing next

• Spherical Defence, which utilises machine learning to thwart banking intrusions, is undergoing a pilot programme with one of India’s largest payment providers
• Whitechapel’s Status Today has reportedly ‘progressed commercial deals’ and has partnerships lined up with Cisco and Microsoft
• Cyberowl has secured a proof of concept project with Cisco and along with £75,000 in Innovate UK funding
• Verimuchme is reaching out to corporate and enterprise clients to help it position its digital wallet product in the market
• Going for the minimum viable product route, CyberSmart launched its security compliance platform into beta and is now gearing up for its public launch
• Elemendar has secured an undisclosed contract which will allow them to ‘continue to develop its machine intelligence platform’
• Counterintelligence platform, Countercraft, utilised GCHQ and Wayra’s contacts to ‘position its product strategically’ in the UK market.

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