Plexal, the innovation company founded by Delancey, has revealed details of a total of 108 cyber entrepreneurs, startups, SMEs and scaleups joining its Cyber Runway accelerator programme – with Wolfberry, the multi-award-winning Cardiff-headquartered Cyber Security consultancy, securing one of the 20 places allocated for the Scale stream of this DCMS backed programme.
Cyber Runway has been designed to address some of the biggest challenges facing cybersecurity – such as diversity and inclusion and regional representation – and to support the most promising innovators at various stages of growth. Wolfberry Cyber Security is the only Welsh based organisation to be selected for what is the largest cyber startup accelerator in the UK, taking its place amongst the most diverse community of cyber founders in the country – reaffirming this pioneering company’s mission to make cyber security accessible, understandable and affordable for any organisation.
The cohorts in this ground-breaking accelerator are solving challenges like ransomware, cyber fraud, cyber-physical threats to critical national infrastructure, cloud security, improving threat intelligence – and boosting education using emerging technologies such as AI, quantum and cloud security.
The 3-stream Cyber Runway programme
The unique Cyber Runway programme is built on three distinct streams which together deliver dedicated curricula for cyber startups based on their growth phase: Launch, Grow and Scale.
- Launch: 20 entrepreneurs will get support with launching their business, building a minimum viable product and creating a network.
- Grow: 68 startups and SMEs will get business support to help them address their growing pains, access funding and achieve commercial success.
- Scale: 20 scaleups will access support (including 1:1 mentoring) to help them grow rapidly in the UK and around the world.
Cyber Runway has replaced and consolidated three DCMS-funded programmes (HutZero, Cyber 101 and Tech Nation’s cyber accelerator for startups) with the aim of strengthening the UK’s cyber ecosystem – and accelerating the growth of a new generation of breakthrough cyber startups to improve national security, stimulate innovation and drive economic growth.
Damon Rands, CEO of Wolfberry Cyber Security is thrilled at the latest major development achieved by his team:
“The Cyber Runway membership represents some of the most innovative and high-potential cyber organisations currently operating in the UK. We’re very excited to be selected as one of only 20 UK companies for the scale-up stream and are already benefiting from the programme.”
“It’s a fantastic initiative backed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and delivered by Plexal in partnership with CyLon, Deloitte and CSIT (the Centre for Secure Information Technologies) and we are excited to maximise the opportunity to learn and develop over the next six months.”
Saj Huq, director of innovation at Plexal, noted the game-changing nature of the programme:
“Cyber Runway is specifically designed to address some of the challenges facing cyber startups as they scale. Our three programmes will connect cyber founders to the mentors, investors and corporates they need to accelerate their growth and access diverse talent. This is a significant moment for UK cyber and I have every confidence that the collaboration between the government and the private sector to create Cyber Runway will make the cyber ecosystem more successful, innovative and inclusive.”
This latest achievement caps an extraordinary year for Wolfberry. Recently named “Most Innovative Cyber Security Company in the UK”, “Best International Cyber Security Consultancy Firm in the UK” and acclaimed as the highest placed cyber security organisation within the WalesTech50 awards, Wolfberry have become world-renowned specialists in the field, with a vast knowledge of the latest trends, technologies, and attack vectors – and a full range of managed services that include their award-winning, CREST-certified penetration testing services, cyber essentials certification, phishing simulations, ransomware preparation and recovery consultancy; as well as their innovative and award-winning active threat detection and vulnerability scanning service, all of which ensures their clients are wrapped in a suite of services designed to meet their needs.
The full list of Cyber Runway members is available at plexal.com/cyber-runway
