Last October, ScotlandIS launched Cyber Showcase; an inaugural programme of coaching and business advice for startups, culminating in an investor showcase event. 

12 innovative Scottish cyber startups were successful in their application to the programme and underwent six weeks of coaching and mentoring sessions held by expert in public speaking, Greg Summers. These sessions included practical advice on constructing an investment pitch and perfecting its presentation.  

In November, the final Showcase event saw all 12 participants present their cyber solutions to a room of investors and industry buyers. An expert judging panel consisting of Pete Jaco (Chair/Non-Executive Director for high growth SME start-ups), Joshua Walters (Partner at Osney Capital) and Elaine McKechnie (Senior Manager of Cyber Strategy, Frameworks & Threat Intelligence at Virgin Money) deliberated on the prizes for Best Pitch and Most Innovative Company on the day. 

Now more than six months later, it’s time to find out what all our Cyber Showcase participants have been up to… 

Blackwired

Blackwired, a cyber intelligence platform, most recently won Startup Digital Tech Business of the Year at the ScotlandIS Digital Technology Awards. Managing Director for UK & Europe, Iain Johnston, also attended the ITWebs Summit in South Africa after Blackwired were successful in securing a place on a trade mission with the Department for Business & Trade. 

CyberShell Solutions

CyberShell Solutions is a unique SaaS Platform that detects software vulnerabilities and trains engineers to avoid them. CEO Tayyaba Nafees has been involved with our Cyber Cluster for years and CyberShell won the prize for Most Innovative Company at the Cyber Showcase Event. 

Dewar Cyber Consulting

In the last six months, Dewar was shortlisted in the 2022 Scottish Cyber Awards for Best Cyber Startup and the Internationalisation Award, and was shortlisted for Best Professional Services Startup at the National Startup Awards Scotland 2023.Helmed by Robert Dewar, they partnered with Atlantic Council and Scottish Government to run Scotland’s first ever Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge, which takes place again this year. 

HAELO

Managing Director Dr Mick O’Connor this week attended the RegTech Global Showcase at London Tech Week, recently spoke at The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (The CISI) CPD event, and was part of the Barclays Eagle Labs Funding Readiness Programme. The regtech software company for financial services moved into headquarters at the new Barclays Eagle Lab in Glasgow. 

Highground

2023 saw the official launch of Highground.io and its cyber platform that aims to help IT teams to measure, manage & communicate on cybersecurity. Founder Mark Lamb had speaker slots at the Barcelona IoT and Cyber Security Congress 2023 and at the upcoming Infosecurity Europe Conference. Most recently, Highground was shortlisted for UK’s Most Innovative Cyber SME 2023.

LastingAsset

The Edinburgh Napier spinout has taken part in the Royal Bank of Scotland Accelerator, and also secured over £70k funding from Scottish Enterprise’s High Growth Spin Out Programme. Commercial Lead, Nanik Ramchandani, is the recent recipient of The Royal Society 2022 Entrepreneur in Residence, representing Edinburgh Napier.

Lupovis

Lupovis and it’s AI-based cyber deception solution recently secured a place on the ITWeb Security Summit trade mission with Department for Business and Trade, and is another finalist for UK’s Most Innovative Cyber SME 2023. CTO Robbie Binnie won Lupovis the prize for Best Pitch at the Cyber Showcase event. 

Nectis

Nectis and its Unlocking Potential people analytics platform is continuing on its growth journey , having also been a past participant in the CivTech 5 Challenge which resulted in a Scottish Enterprise SMART grant of £92k, acceptance onto the UK Cyber Accelerator, and delivering a proof of concept for Scottish Government.

OSP Cyber Academy

OSP Cyber has seen substantial growth after attending the Arab International Cyber Summit in Bahrain last December, after ScotlandIS was made aware of the opportunity from Department for Business and Trade. Two large projects originated from the conference, and OSP expects to recruit at least three more employees this year. The cyber training academy held their successful OT/IT Cyber Summit in March and are hosting a Senior Leaders Cyber Summit in August including the inaugural Cybersecurity Woman of the Year Awards. COO Irene Coyle was recently made an Advisory Board member with Cyber Centre of Excellence. 

PolyDigi Tech

PolyDigi is another long-standing member of the Cyber cluster and member of ScotlandIS. The Their award-winning cybersecurity solutions for safer digital transactions saw them recently selected for EY’s first ever Fintech Growth Programme. 

SafeShark

Yet another finalist for UK’s Most Innovative Cyber SME 2023, Director Calum Wilson has said that the Cyber Showcase training on how to grow a company has directly led SafeShark to more sales and strong growth through 2023. Calum was recently the keynote speaker at the CEDIA Tech Summit Edinburgh.

TrueDeploy

TrueDeploy, another Edinburgh Napier spinout supported by Nanik Ramchandani, was recently accepted to Innovate UK CyberASAP and the RBS Entrepreneur Accelerator. Co-Founder Dr Pavlos Papadopoulos won Outstanding Young Person in Cyber at the Scottish Cyber Awards 2022. 

We are so impressed by what these companies are achieving, which highlights the truly innovative cyber talent we have here in Scotland. With three Showcase participants shortlisted for the UK’s Most Innovative Cyber SME 2023, if you’re at Infosecurity Europe next week make sure you check them out!

We at ScotlandIS can’t wait to see what they all do next!