Accelerator Teams raising €5million & Creating 40 Jobs this Year

Transformational Change in 13 weeks

Ireland’s first Security Accelerator has welcomed Investors, VCs and Seasoned Entrepreneurs to Cork for Demo Day where the Accelerator Teams pitched for investment. The Accelerator teams are looking to employ up to 40 people before the end of this year and raise over €5 million in investment. The Accelerator is supported by key funding partners Kernel Capital and Trend Micro.

Following 13 weeks of intensive mentoring and in-depth workshops with a focus on the team, technology, business model, market opportunity and investor readiness, the Teams are currently seeking investment in their businesses. World-class mentors like Julian Costley, Investor & Serial Entrepreneur; Eamonn Carey, TechStars; Joe O’Sullivan, Ophir (formerly Apple) and Ronan Murphy, Smarttech have challenged and advised the teams sharing their experience.

The teams are developing world-class technology solutions in Artificial Intelligence, BlockChain and CyberSecurity. Each of these areas feature in  Gartner’s top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018 and help form ‘The Intelligent Digital Mesh’ which looks at the entwining of people, devices, content and services.*

Key to this Accelerator is the focus on team, the product proposition and the transformational process and change that GuardYoo from in some of the teams. Each of the teams has brought product to market during the 13 weeks, with one team, Altada, already securing international Enterprise clients.

Winner of the Most Investible Company, Allan Beechinor, founder & CEO Altada said: “The Accelerator was the turning point for Altada. We knew we had something but the Accelerator helped us focus our product offering, refine our investor proposition and ultimately transform the business in 13 weeks.”

Also participating in the Accelerator were Johannes Ahlmann, CTO and John O’Reilly, CEO of iLen; Roman Sologub, CEO, Oleh Derevianko Executive Chairman, GuardYoo  from Ukraine and Callum Donnelly, CEO & Ebad Ali, CTO ParrotScribe.

Pictured (L-R):Joe O’Sullivan, Ophir Mfg; Ger Goold, Kernel Capital; Susan Brennan, Altada; Allan Beechinor, founder & CEO, Altada; Aidan O’Driscoll, HBAN and Willy Dalton, Trend Micro

Commenting on the Accelerator programme, Ger Goold, COO & Partner at Kernel Capital, said: “Cork is developing a reputation for Ireland’s growing Security Cluster. This Accelerator is a unique opportunity for startups to tap into the experience and resources of the strong network of Cork’s multinationals, such as Trend Micro, helping these startups grow, succeed, and in turn contribute to the Cluster.”

William Dalton, Director EMEA IS & Corporate Technology, Trend Micro added: “It has been really interesting to watch these teams grow in the 13 week Accelerator and to watch the transformational change taking place. The technologies involved are crucial in today’s connected world and there is no doubt there are some real rising stars in the group, watch this space!”

This world-class accelerator programme, which began in January 2018, focussed on early stage disruptive companies in the wider security industry including, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IOT), Blockchain, Health & Bioinformatics, Fintech, Regtech,  & Logistics. The second programme is now open for applications via isa.corkbic.com.

Partners for the International Security Accelerator are Kernel Capital, Bank of Ireland, Trend Micro, CorkBIC and Cork City Council.