CyberTech|X Startup Accelerator
The 2022 CyberTech|X Accelerator cohort kicked off this week, welcoming 15 of the best and brightest cybersecurity startups from across the US and beyond to Tampa Bay – including startups from Canada, France, Germany, Israel, and India. This cohort also includes four (4) women-led cybersecurity startups! This cohort includes many serial entrepreneurs, some with prior exits, as well as many cybersecurity professionals and former executives from top tech firms such as Symantec, IBM, McAfee, LifeLock, Google, and Microsoft. Several of the company founders are also US Navy and Air Force veterans, including a lifetime of leadership positions.
In its second year, the CyberTech|X Accelerator is a 3-month tech business accelerator program exclusively for cybersecurity startups with the vision to further Tampa Bay’s (and Florida’s) reputation as a nationally-recognized hub for cybersecurity talent and innovation. The program provides these startups with access to key resources, such as a dedicated Cohort Director, mentoring with notable tech founders and cybersecurity industry giants, sales training, pitch coaching and investor introductions in an environment designed to support high-scale growth.
The inaugural 2021 program was deemed incredibly successful, despite being a first-year program, with roughly 50% of the cohort companies closing their funding rounds within six months of Demo Day plus two companies who were acquired within four months of Demo Day. One company, Refactr, was acquired by SOPHOS for an undisclosed amount. The former CEO and founder of Refactr, Mike Fraser, now works for SOPHOS as Vice President of DevSecOps and will be volunteering as a cybersecurity expert mentor in the 2022 cohort. (Read more about the Refactr story here.)
The CyberTech|X Accelerator was created with help from a $100,000 gift from local entrepreneur and ConnectWise founder, Arnie Bellini and his wife, Lauren Bellini, through their foundation, Bellini Better World. Other key funding partners include A-LIGN, KnowBe4 and EY. Other funders include Bank of America and Sp6. along with a donation from the founders of Refactr, Michael and Korrine Fraser. Other strategic support for this program comes from the Florida-Israeli Business Accelerator (FIBA), Cyber Florida and University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business.
The program concludes on April 6th with a invite-only DEMO DAY event, along with a post-DEMO DAY celebration. The cohort companies will pitch their businesses to an audience of accredited investors, venture capitalists and other cybersecurity industry leaders. (Note: Active members of our investor network will be automatically invited to DEMO DAY. You can also apply to attend by visiting here.)
Meet the 15 companies participating in the 2022 CyberTech|X Accelerator cohort:
Caliola® designs innovative products to ensure secure and reliable communication. Our OverKey® cybersecurity product radically simplifies the deployment of military-grade encryption ensuring critical networks and infrastructure are secured.
CEO: Jennifer Halford
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
CloudWize is a no-code platform for maximum cloud security and compliance. A single platform that automates security protection regardless of where the underlying services reside. CloudWize simplifies the complete picture of all cloud pillars: security, performance, cost, operations, and compliance.
CEO: Chen Goldberg
Location: Netanya, Israel
Crashtest Security offers a DAST scanner that supports agile development teams to release continuously secure web apps and APIs through black box scanning.
CEO: Felix Brombacher
Location: Munich, Germany
Lessontrek is a modern and secure SaaS that delivers and tracks cyber training. It provides real-life threat intel and vulnerabilities fixed by Microsoft. Lessontrek is owned and operated by a US Navy veteran with 10 years of startup and Fortune 500 experience on the frontlines of cybersecurity in Silicon Valley and Microsoft.
CEO: Jason Pessemier
Location: Seattle, WA
A frictionless identity management and verification platform, Memi enables users to authenticate each other and to businesses using a centralized platform while protecting the user’s personal information. Each Memi user is linked to a government issued photo ID, providing verified and trusted user data.
CEO: Kevin Gordon
Location: Winnipeg, Canada
Metapyxl is a digital content authentication software providing solutions to address vulnerabilities associated with protecting, authenticating, tracking & licensing digital media while giving creators a peer-to-peer trusted marketplace to safely distribute their protected content.
Location: Delaware City, DE
Revolutionizing hybrid cloud technologies with the world’s first smart data container designed for the network making your data Simply Private. Our secure modular data containers protect your data in any environment without the need of centralized access controls.
CEO: Yoon Auh
Location: Glencoe, IL
Ragnarok is a cloud cyber storage startup offering a solution to the growing problem in ransomware. We decentralize and secure cloud storage using our unique technology to make the data stored quantum-safe and secure it against a host of vulnerabilities, from data breaches to misconfigurations.
Location: Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
Redactable helps companies permanently redact their confidential documents. Our proprietary Redaction Wizard engages secure redaction architecture to ensure that your data is truly eradicated. Most of all, our seamless deployment method guarantees that your confidential documents never leave your private network.
CEO: Amanda Levay
Location: New York City, NYNorfolk, VA, USA
Sequretek is an enterprise cybersecurity company with solutions in the areas of enterprise security monitoring, detection and response (XDR), identity access governance and authentication (IGA), and endpoint threat detection and response (EDR).
CEO: Pankit Desai
Location: Woodbridge, NJ
Sicura is a new way of achieving compliance in high-security, highly-regulated industries. We work with your existing automation and security tools to enforce and prove a compliant baseline across your IT landscape. Sicura enables you to meet technical controls of common compliance regulations, avoid errors and misconfigurations, and prevent security drift by providing automated remediation for your IT infrastructure.
CEOPresident/CPO: Lisa Umberger
Location: Baltimore, MD
With Snowpack, Become Invisible. Snowpack combines privacy and security in a unique overlay network to make you (and your data) invisible on the Internet.
CEO: Sebastien Groyer
Location: Paris, France
TEKRiSQ drives cybersecurity maturity in Small & Medium sized Businesses (SMBs). We align with trusted advisors using our engagement platform to identify, communicate, and remediate risk in a streamlined fashion. We broaden our value through data exchange to update, report, validate and make remediations auditable by trusted advisors in real-time.
CEO: Bill Haber
Location: Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
Transmosis is a cybersecurity workforce developer that enables American workers to develop careers in the growing information security industry. Transmosis is the creator of transmosisONE, a Fortune 5000 cybersecurity platform designed to protect SMBs from cyber attack with integrated cyber liability coverage.
CEO: Chase Norlin
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Trust Stamp secures biometric and personal information without removing its utility, enabling institutions to deploy biometric systems without the risk of biometric data theft.
CEO: Andrew Gowasack
Location: Atlanta, GA
Meet the cybersecurity experts dedicated to supporting the 2022 CyberTech|X Accelerator cohort:
One of the unique features of the CyberTech|X Accelerator is the CyberTech|X Advisory Council, a very impressive group of cybersecurity experts who volunteer their time and talents during the 90-day program to provide specialized mentoring and coaching to the cohort companies.
We want to acknowledge and thank this year’s CyberTech|X Advisory Council members:
- Asim Murad – Bank of America
- Cathy Ryan Reneer – JP Morgan Chase & Co.
- Christopher Rogers – formerly with SYKES
- Erich Kron – KnowBe4
- Ernie Ferraresso – Cyber Florida
- Jed Young – Jabil
- Kishen Sridharan – Raymond James
- Leela J. Gray – Retired U.S. Army
- Mai Ensmann – Cyber Florida
- Petar Besalev – A-LIGN
- Rolando Torres – Abacode
- Russ Miller – OPSWAT
- Ruth Brophy – H.I.G. Capital
- Scott Margolis – EY
- Sean Drake – Stony Lonesome Group
- Thom Kenney – USSOCOM
- Vince Rocca – Digital Hands
- Mike Fraser – SOPHOS (Founder of Refactr, a member of our 2021 CyberTech|X cohort)
