ICE71’s cyber security start-ups raise $18 million for next stage of growth

ICE71, the region’s first hub for cybersecurity entrepreneurs and start-ups, has strengthened start-ups’ ability to secure funding through ICE71 Accelerate, a three-month accelerator programme for early-stage cybersecurity start-ups.

Since the programme started in July 2018, ICE71 has helped 16 cyber security start-ups raise $18 million collectively. This includes funding from NUS Enterprise and Singtel Innov8, the co-founders of ICE71.

On 25 June, another nine start-ups had the chance to pitch their companies and solutions to over 300 potential investors, partners and customers via a virtual Demo Day.

This event was timely because of the increasing cyber threats related to data security and privacy as companies accelerate their digitalisation and more people study or work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. These challenges have driven even greater demand globally for cyber security solutions that can help mitigate these risks.

Given the cautious investment climate during this downturn, cybersecurity start-ups face greater challenges in getting investors to fund their ventures. With ICE71’s resources, start-ups are leveraging its capabilities in mentoring and connecting them to an ecosystem of investors, partners and customers.

“The emergence of new challenges in these unprecedented times has presented ample opportunity for cyber security entrepreneurs to create innovative solutions. As cyber security is even more crucial than before, we need strong synergy in our ecosystem to collectively address sophisticated cyber threats,” said Professor Freddy Boey, NUS Deputy President (Innovation and Enterprise).

“NUS and Singtel have been working closely to help strengthen our defences, having made a breakthrough under the NUS-Singtel Cyber Security Lab last year. Through ICE71’s programmes, we continue our efforts in developing industry-relevant programmes and platforms to help our start-ups go to market more quickly. We will continue to offer the resources to help cyber security entrepreneurs accelerate in their growth and expand our ecosystem with support from the Government and our industry partners.”

Mr Edgar Hardless, CEO of Singtel Innov8, said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the start-up ecosystem, making it extremely difficult for start-ups to connect to investors to get funding and grow their businesses. This underscores the value of the cyber security community and network of start-ups, investors, partners and customers that Innov8 has helped ICE71 create over the past two years. ICE71’s virtual Demo Day provides our Cohort Four start-ups a great way to showcase their technology and solutions to potential customers and investors, both locally and internationally.”

Hailing from Singapore, Australia, Israel, the UK, the US and Poland, the current cohort of nine start-ups has developed a range of cyber security solutions that are applicable to businesses, governments and consumers. Watch the companies’ virtual Demo Day pitches.

1. Assimil8 (from Australia) is developing a solution that helps SMEs spot anomalies and identify potential network risks quickly without relying on external specialists.

2. Chainkit (from the US and originally known as PencilData) uses military-grade tamper detection to expose cyber attacks in real time, preventing cyber attackers from hiding their tracks or dwelling within a network or system.

3. GamaSec (from Israel) combines cybersecurity and cyber insurance, using virtual hacker technologies to identify and prevent cyber attacks via websites, minimising threats for cyber insurance policyholders.

4. Guardara (from the UK) focuses on fuzz testing, a software testing technique for discovering coding errors and security loopholes. Its solution helps one discover such loopholes early by identifying software flaws and weakest links in operating systems and networks.

5. Kapalya (from the US) helps organisations counter ransomware attacks by allowing files and folders to be encrypted across multiple platforms (like desktops, portable devices, cloud storage and servers) that have to be accessed remotely with more people working from home.

6. Kinnami (from the US) recognises a greater demand for data security across devices and users everywhere, especially with more working from home. It secures confidential data via fragmented and encrypted storage.

7. neoEYED (from the US): neoEYED has developed a solution that helps prevent fraud by using AI to learn and recognise users’ behaviour. An alert is raised for any suspicious activity on an account.

8. Olympus Sky Technologies (from Poland) provides secure communication and credential management for IoT-related hardware and virtual assets, helping enterprises in different industries adopt IoT technologies more easily.

9. Scantist (from Singapore) finds and addresses vulnerabilities in software applications and products which have been the preferred target for hackers worldwide in recent years.

To date, ICE71 Accelerate has supported a total of 34 cyber security start-ups through four cohorts, with the aim of strengthening Singapore’s growing cyber security ecosystem by attracting and developing cybersecurity start-ups with innovative competencies and new technologies. For the latest overview of Singapore’s cybersecurity startup ecosystem, please see ICE71’s map here.