We are proud to announce that CounterCraft has been selected, along with other six startups, to participate in the first edition of a three-month accelerator program at the GCHQ Cyber Security Accelerator, officially launched this week in Cheltenham, UK. The accelerator will be part of a world-class Government-funded cyber innovation centre that will help keep the UK secure online.
This incubator is the result of a partnership between GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and Wayra UK, the leading UK corporate accelerator and part of the Telefónica Open Future_ network.
GCHQ is one of the three UK Intelligence and Security Agencies, along with MI5 and MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service), and this accelerator is part of a national strategy regarding cyber security, with the aim of fighting the growing threat of cyber attacks against UK business.
The UK government has established cyber security as a priority, committing £1.9 billion to a National Cyber Security Strategy over the next 5 years. But regarding this program, as Mark Hancock, digital minister at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport states: “the government effort is not just on national security, but also focused on strong ecosystem and products to help business”.
The three-month development program will include benefits such as a non-equity grant provided by Wayra, mentoring, contact with a considerable investor network, office space at the GCHQ’s accelerator, and access to GCHQ’s personnel and technical expertise.
As our co-founder and CMO Dan Brett commented on TechCrunch: “We are designing a defensive product to allow large organisations protect themselves from the most advanced attacks available, and where better to get advice about what the companies could be facing than from GCHQ. Our aim is to provide a new type of defensive layer that improves security for companies in the UK and globally. We believe this will be a great step in making our product better”.
The other startups that have been selected, from an impressive initial list of 30, are Cyberowl, Cybersmart, FutureScaper, Spherical Defence, StatusToday, and Verimuchme.
Learn more what we can do for Federal and government agencies.