• New impact numbers of the cyber community revealed as five innovative companies join a new NCSC For Startups programme 
  • Fresh intake of cyber startups embraces NCSC and Plexal’s shared mission to solve critical technology challenges and enhance national security, tackling everything from encrypted data to AI 

Wednesday 20th September 2023 – The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Plexal, the innovation company closing the gap between government, startups and industry, have welcomed a new intake of five cyber companies from across the UK to the NCSC For Startups programme. 

Over the course of 12 weeks, startups will receive business and technical expertise, insights, mentoring and guidance from the NCSC, Plexal and other programme partners including Deloitte, CyNam, Hub8 and QA. The programme is designed to be a force multiplier for those who have the talent and ambition to solve the biggest cyber security challenges facing the UK. 

The five new startups follow the more than 60 businesses to complete the NCSC For Startups programme, who have collectively gone on to raise over £512m and create over 1,600 new jobs since the programme was founded in 2017. 

The five companies who join the programme to form the new intake of startup talent are: 

  • Acubed.IT is committed to supporting the public sector to ensure the UK’s ever-evolving cyber security is top priority, providing a novel security product for solving complex cross-domain problems. 
  • coc00n secures the personal devices of high-profile and high-risk individuals and their families against cyber-attacks. Devised and operated by cyber security experts, coc00n comprises a suite of uniquely architected technical products, configured to provide 24/7, full device protection against cyber-attacks. 
     
  • Cyber Tzar is delivering cyber resilience with its online Cyber Risk Management platform. Providing dynamic, data-driven insights, it empowers businesses with effective remediation pathways through empirical vulnerability scanning, cyber security profiling and scoring. 
  • MemCrypt is taking a new approach to prevent and reduce the impact of ransomware attacks by supporting recovery of encrypted data to remove the need to pay any ransom.  
  • RevEng.AI is building foundational AI models for understanding the contents and behaviour of software supply chains. 

Saj Huq, CCO and head of innovation at Plexal, says: “Cyber threats are now affecting every corner of society. If the UK wants to develop a technological competitive advantage and counter cross-cutting threats to its national security, taking an ecosystem approach is the only answer. We’re excited to welcome these new startups into the NCSC For Startups programme to help them develop, adapt and pilot solutions. 

“The startup economy is thriving but being an entrepreneur can often feel like a lonely job. With NCSC Ffor Startups, we’re giving startups unparalleled access to experts from within the government as well as industry to shape how cyber products are developed – ensuring they’re purpose built to solve the challenges we face.” 

NCSC For Startups is a collaboration between the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC, a part of GCHQ) and Plexal. It’s supported by Deloitte, CyNam, Cheltenham’s cyber networking community, Hub8, a network of innovation and co-working spaces around Cheltenham and QA, a tech skills organisation. 

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About Plexal 
 
Plexal is the innovation company solving society’s challenges through collaboration with government, startups and industry. The business is closing the gap between organisations – small and large, local and global, private and public – and working towards a common goal: using science and technology to deliver national security and prosperity. It was founded in 2017 as the innovation centre at Here East and is owned by clients of specialist real estate investment advisory company Delancey. 

  

Providing bespoke consultancy services and state-of-the-art workspaces for over 1,000 innovators, Plexal sources the right partners from our ecosystem of 15,000 connections. It supports entrepreneurs, startups and scaleups building emerging technologies and operates across multiple sectors including cyber, healthcare, intelligence and defence, government, public safety, financial services and telecoms.  

  

Expanding on its existing presence in London, Cheltenham and Manchester, Plexal acquired a majority shareholding in Hub8 – the Cheltenham network of co-working spaces for cyber-tech, digital and creative startups and SMEs. This is part of an ongoing mission to build the UK’s most connected cyber ecosystem, with GCHQ’s more than 70-year heritage in Cheltenham. 

  

Plexal delivers projects for key government departments and global tech companies including the National Cyber Security Centre, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Amazon Web Services and IBM. The NCSC For Startups alumni of over 60 companies has collectively raised over £512m and created over 1,600 jobs, while 72 cyber startups that have gone through Plexal’s LORCA accelerators have collectively raised over £300m, generated more than £68m in revenue and hired over 800 people.