LORCA
Helping the most innovative UK startups scale, connect and solve the big cyber challenges.
GROWING THE UK’S CYBERSECURITY INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM
Plexal was tasked by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (as part of the government’s National Cyber Security Strategy) with:
- growing the UK’s cybersecurity innovation ecosystem
- helping the most innovative startups scale
- making sure the solutions we support have a close product-market fit
- enabling industry and society to stay safe online
We created LORCA: a cybersecurity ecosystem that connects startups, scaleups, academics, investors, platforms, the government and industry from around the world.
Led by Plexal’s innovation team, we’ve partnered with Deloitte and the Centre for Secure Information Technologies at Queen’s University Belfast to deliver five accelerators that have supported 72 cyber startups from the UK and abroad.
Our members have raised over £270m in investment, generated over £42m in revenue, created over 865 jobs and won more than 1,200 contracts. They have also delivered over 1,000 proof of concepts since joining LORCA.
In June 2021, we turbocharged the growth of six graduates of our accelerator when we welcomed our LORCA Ignite cohort.
We’ve also built up a network of enterprises to help them solve their most pressing cybersecurity challenges, make sense of emerging trends and tap into a global community of innovators, including Lloyds Banking Group, Dell Technologies, SOSA, Kx, Splunk and the Global Cyber Alliance.
For example, through our scouting service we helped Lloyds Banking Group identify a cohort member (VIVIDA) that had built an innovative, VR-based cyber training solution. We supported both parties with contracting and delivering a pilot, which resulted in a commercial agreement.
LORCA has also created a number of forums that enable technology and cybersecurity leaders from a range of sectors to come together. Our Finance Forum helps us connect investors with startups and industry, while our Industry Advisory Board sets our innovation agenda.
Finally, our sector-specific roundtables bring together CISOs, security leaders and startups to identify innovation gaps for cybersecurity in sectors like the media, insurance, financial services and healthcare.
Learn more
Learn more about LORCA and meet our members on our website
Our Cyber Community
We’re building the UK’s most connected cyber community and delivering programmes like NCSC For Startups and Cyber Runway. Learn more, become a member or bring us your cyber innovation challenge.