From concept to market: 19 cyber security teams progress in CyberASAP Year 8

The UK cyber security sector remains fast-moving and has generated revenue of £11.9 billion, up 13% since last year, according to the recent Government’s Cyber security sectoral analysis 2024.

As the only pre-seed accelerator programme in the cybersecurity ecosystem, CyberASAP, funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and delivered by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, plays a vital role in supporting cyber security innovation and commercialisation by bridging the gap between academic research and commercial viability.

Through a series of intensive workshops, dedicated events and mentoring that kicked off in April, the 11-month programme offers commercialisation expertise and guidance, providing cyber researchers with necessary and practical entrepreneurial know-how, that will allow them to fast-track their innovative solutions.

Throughout the recent hands-on bootcamp, including investor-readiness pitch training delivered by Ian Tracey of AnchoredIn, sessions in PR and communications with Eskenzi PR, digital marketing with Taylor Communications and networking skills workshop with Will Kinitsh, the teams focused on perfecting their offerings and translating them into compelling brand storytelling.

The CyberASAP team is now gearing up for the upcoming Meet the Entrepreneur Day where the Year 8 cohort teams will present their elevator pitches.

Market validation successful teams

The 19 selected teams for the Market Validation phase are:

• University of Huddersfield: A Secure and Trusted Decentralized Platform for Threat Information Sharing
• University of East Anglia: AI enabled multi-tier trust-management in Internet of Medical Things
• City University of London: ARMOREX – Next-Generation Cyber-Security Compliance Framework
• Sheffield Hallam University: EyeGuardChain: Detecting malicious websites using AI
• Aston University: MetaSecure: Integrity of Metaverse and DeFi Transactions
• De Montfort University: Protecting Medical Data: A Novel AI-Driven E-Healthcare Solution using Post-Quantum Lightweight Cryptography
• Queen’s University of Belfast:  QRICSec: AI security for Open networks
• London Metropolitan University: Risk Assessment in Transactions under Security Threat
• University College London: A continuous post-deployment smart contract vulnerability detection SaaS to ensure blockchain security resilience
• Anglia Ruskin University: AI360Degree, advancing Trustworthiness for Ethical, Secured and Connected AI Ecosystem
• University of St Andrews: EyeLock, Gaze-Enhanced Authentication Technology for Mobile Devices
• University of Sheffield: GridGuardian, safeguarding the Future of Renewable Energy with Advanced Cybersecurity
• Teesside University: OPERA, operationalising Privacy for Enhanced Robustness in Applications
• Keele University: PLS-IIoT, leveraging Physical Layer Security for Securing Industrial Internet of Things Systems
• University of the West of England: Real-time anomaly detection and response for smart manufacturing sensor networks
• University of Sunderland: Securing AI models through verification and validation (SAIVV)
• The University of Manchester: Source Code Security with FuSeBMC-AI
• Anglia Ruskin University: Zephyr, Robust and Trustworthy AI Platform for Enhanced Wind Farm Cybersecurity
• Anglia Ruskin University: Secure, Privacy-Preserving, and Intelligent Intrusion Detection System for Industrial Internet of Things (SPIDS4IIoT)

The CyberASAP Year 8 Demo Day will take place on 26 February 2025.

If you would like to be kept informed about the CyberASAP programme, whether as an investor, industrial supporter or academic participant, please register your interest.