[Infowarrior] - Europe Gets A Cyber Security Incubator

[Richard Forno]

Europe Gets A Cyber Security Incubator

Posted Jan 27, 2015 by Natasha Lomas (@riptari)
 
London’s — and Europe’s — crowded startup accelerator scene is getting a new addition. Not fintech-related, this time. Rather the focus is cyber security.

The Cyber London (CyLon for short) 12-week program, has been co-founded by Alex van Someren of VC firm Amadeus Capital Partners, who previously founded U.K. cryptography company nCipher and has advised the U.K. government on various tech issues; along with Jonathan Luff and Grace Cassy, co-founders of strategic technology consultancy Epsilon Advisory Partners, who also bring foreign and security policy experience to the table, including working with No.10 Downing Street.

CyLon’s program will be managed by the Ignite accelerator, and is being run as a not-for-profit, financed by a variety of sponsors — including Amadeus and Epsilon; along with global hedge fund Winton, and international law firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson — none of whom will be taking equity in the selected teams.

So this is about proximity to promising security startups to help with deal flow in the case of investors, and the chance to pick up future clients in the case of the legal and consultancy firms. Although Luff stressed there won’t be any limits placed on the startups in terms of who they can or can’t work with.

CyLon also has an advisory board to help steer the program. This has two members at launch: namely Passion Capital’s Eileen Burbidge, and Jon Bradford, MD of the Techstars London incubator program.

Passion Capital has some skin in the security game already, via b2b cyber security portfolio company Digital Shadows. Burbidge also has a personal interest in security, with a private investment in secure messaging app Wickr. She’s been banging the drum for the U.K. to do more in the security space for a while now — putting her mouth where her money is, and vice versa.

The criteria for choosing teams to enter the CyLon business bootcamp are being left “quite broad”, according to Luff, to maximize interest and help establish the program. “We are defining this as ‘cyber and information security technologies or products’. That is quite deliberate because we want to encourage a good number of people to take an  interest in the program and to apply,” he told TechCrunch.

Startups selected to go through CyLon will get £5,000 to cover their living expenses, and be based in a 4,000 sq. ft. co-working space provided by Winton in Hammersmith, West London.

“We are going to be looking at applications over the next month to six weeks and we’ll be looking for the kinds of things you would expect from a strong accelerator and an incubator program: people with interesting ideas in interesting areas, able to demonstrate that they’ve got the skills required to develop those ideas,” Luff added.

He said they expect to take about 10 startups in the first intake, and are looking to run two programs per year. Financing from the program sponsors has been secured for one year at this point, and they’re not yet looking beyond that at this point — intending to see how CyLon runs in year one.

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http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/27/cylon/


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