It’s been a few weeks since we revealed our expansion to Singapore with CyberBoost. But in case you missed it, our global Catalyse programme with the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) and National University of Singapore (NUS) is designed to enable startups to use the country as a platform for scaling.
Highlighting our partnership with the CSA and NUS, Plexal’s CCO and Head of Innovation, Saj Huq, said: “Cyber security challenges are global, necessitating international cooperation and creating global opportunities for innovators and adopters alike. Singapore stands as a crucial nexus for this progress. We are proud to extend our international reach by collaborating with the CyberSG TIG Collaboration Centre, established by CSA and NUS.
“Together, we aim to address critical challenges and accelerate the adoption of cutting-edge technologies by nurturing cyber security companies at various growth stages. The CyberBoost: Catalyse programme will enable companies to both establish themselves in Singapore and expand into high-growth global markets.”
From our founding in 2017, we quickly became an international operator through delivery of LORCA (the London Office for Rapid Cybersecurity Advancement) in 2018 and welcomed companies from North and South America, Europe and South East Asia to join us as part of a global ecosystem.
Collectively we learnt how to galvanise the UK and international cyber innovation ecosystems and established Plexal as a key orchestrator in shaping the emerging cyber market globally. This included developing and building global innovation networks; including with partner governments, industry and innovation ecosystems. And through five LORCA accelerators in three years, we saw 72 cyber innovators raise over £430m in investment and earn over £70m in revenue.
One of our earliest moves overseas took us into the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), recognising Oman as an important partner to the UK as a neutral location in the Middle East. Plexal’s role has been to support the digital transformation of Oman’s economy, which has long been centred around petrodollars. With a young population and a legacy business sector, the country has been presented with a risk of weak job opportunities and instability.
“On behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and British Embassy Muscat, we’re delivering programmes including UK-Oman Cyber and the UK Gulf Women in Cybersecurity Fellowship,” details Saj. “Our role has been to support startup economy growth, job creation and technology adoption to present more digitally-enabled opportunities. This work ensures Omani companies have a better trading window with the UK and vice versa, opening the gateway for British businesses to enter the GCC. That mutual alignment is key.”
More broadly, we all recall the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak. Through burnout, decreased budgets and the pandemic, healthcare workforce shortages reached crisis levels globally, which placed patients at risk – particularly those awaiting treatment. Amazon Web Services recognised this and together we developed the AWS Healthcare Accelerator: Global Cohort for Workforce to find startup solutions to deliver supporting technologies for staff.
Building our shared ambition to solve global problems, our AWS European Defence Accelerator looked to tackle defence sector challenges. Ranging from increased cyber threats through to energy resilience, discovery of mission-critical solutions for land, air, maritime, space and cyber domains was central to the programme.
Discussing the richness of talent coming together to present solutions, Plexal CEO Andrew Roughan said: “The diversity and inventiveness of startups for the AWS European Defence Accelerator is incredibly promising, with startups at different growth stages joining from Europe, Canada, and the US.”
At Plexal, we understand that an international outlook opens the aperture for potential solutions to challenges. Therefore, we’re proud to see so many of the alumni that have completed our programmes enter global markets, such as:
Cyber Owl, a maritime-focused risk management specialist, has operated beyond the UK for some time given the nature of its work – serving markets including Singapore and Greece. The firm committed to putting its $5.1m funding towards ongoing international growth.
CounterCraft, a threat deception platform, has secured deals with NATO and the US Department of Defense, supported through participation in NCSC For Startups, which provided invaluable intelligence insights. “Without being on the NCSC programme, we wouldn’t have understood the challenges this group of people are facing, so that was a huge win for us,” Countercraft co-founder Dan Brett said.
International business trips are a core component of our programme offering, with missions to the likes of San Francisco for RSA Conference and Helsinki for Slush. The benefit for those attending is evident; Countercraft’s American expansion was forged from a UK-US trade mission while APIContext, an API monitoring and governance platform, and eXate, a data privacy and security platform, have partnered – the result of travelling to RSA together as cohort members of Cyber Runway.
“We’re proud that Plexal’s network of startups, industry, academia and government spans four continents,” says Saj. “With partners including Airbus, Amazon Web Services, Dell and IBM operating globally too, this extends our ability to network internationally even further.”
“We’ve long been a convenor of important global conversations. Our Stratford workspace acts as the host location for countless organisations – from the OECD Global Forum on Digital Security for Prosperity in 2019 through to the GSA International Semiconductor Conference and Strategic Command Annual Conference in 2024.
“We’re not stopping here. Stay tuned for more overseas opportunities to come from Plexal as we continue the work to unlock growth and prosperity for businesses across borders.”
