Unveiling the CyberASAP Year 7 Demo Day highlights

Year 7 of the Cyber Security Academic Startup Accelerator Programme (CyberASAP) aimed at supporting the development and commercialisation of cyber security innovations from universities across the UK, concluded with an engaging Demo Day showcasing 13 innovative projects.

Posted on: 10/06/2024
Dr Adaku Agwunobi, Founder of Cyber Heels by Literally Need, Oxford University

Funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and delivered by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, the programme brings the government, cyber security academics and the business and investment communities together to accelerate the growth of the sector.

The programme has seen excellent results since its inception, with the CyberASAP Alumni group securing more than £23 million in further funding, creating over 30 companies, forming acquisitions and partnering with commercial enterprises.

Celebrating the convergence of academia, industry and technology, the Demo Day brought together CyberASAP Year 7 graduates representing universities from across the UK, the programme Alumni, investors, stakeholders, funding bodies and industry experts.

The event started with an impactful keynote addressing the importance and positive impact of programmes such as CyberASAP as part of the wider National Cyber Strategy.

Dubbed by one of the academics, as “an MBA for entrepreneurs in the area of cyber security”, the CyberASAP programme running annually and regionally, allows to capture a range of innovations and address emerging needs, as well as equip academics with entrepreneurial skills to accelerate their innovations to the next stage of the commercialisation journey.

The Demo Day doubled as a networking platform, facilitating connections within the broader cyber security, investor and business communities, and enabling discussions with the leading UK academic teams that showcased highly promising products and services in cyber space.

Resonating with the keynote’s address words, “These start-ups are not merely solving technical challenges, they are shaping our collective, digital resilience,” the CyberASAP programme marked the initial step in unveiling their potential, with the Demo Day providing a stage to present them.

CyberASAP Year 7 teams presenting at the Demo Day:

  1. BlockHawk – University of Oxford: Monitoring Blockchains to detect attacks and misbehaviours
  2. FORENSIC – University of Essex: Secure Device operation to protect future 
Cyber-Physical-Systems
  3. TwinSecure – De Montfort University: Securing Critical National Infrastructure: A Digital Twin-Powered Decision Support System
  4. CyberHeels by LITERALLY NEED: University of Oxford
Improving digital-physical wellbeing with IoT enabled cyber smart shoes
  5. IoT-Armor – University of West London: Empower IoT’s future with education on 
seamless secure-by-default integration
  6. TrueDeploy – Edinburgh Napier University: Mitigating Open-Source Software Risk for SMEs
  7. CybPass – University of Sheffield: Autonomous Penetration Testing and threat Modelling for securing AI
  8. CyberSecurityAId – University of Essex: A dynamic, AI-powered self-assessment cybersecurity tool for small businesses
  9. AI-bility 4Ds – University of Middlesex: Empowering Cyber Learning for diverse minds
  10. SirenPod – Kingston University: AI Enhanced Honeypot for Cybersecurity on IoT devices
  11. ECG.ai – University of Strathclyde: Powering the healthy heartbeat of AI – securing AI models, improving resilience, reducing risk and enabling compliance
  12. ACE: AI Privacy Orchestrator – University of Essex: Privacy-oriented AI training and permissions control for compliance-by- design
  13. Vouchsec – University of Oxford: Conversational Cyber Security Platform for the AI Era

Find out more

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

Save the date: The CyberASAP Year 8 Demo Day will take place on 26 February 2025.

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CyberASAP

CyberASAP

The only pre-seed accelerator programme in the cybersecurity ecosystem, CyberASAP (Cyber Security Academic Startup Accelerator Programme) plays a unique and vital role in supporting cyber security innovation and commercialisation.

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