UK Cyber Security Accelerator Alumni Secure More Than £75 Million in Follow-On Funding
30 Sept 2026
Innovate UK’s CyberASAP programme reaches a major commercial milestone as its tenth cohort moves through the pipeline, highlighting the growing market potential of university-led cyber security innovation.
29 September 2026 — Alumni from the UK’s Cyber Security Academic Startup Accelerator Programme, CyberASAP, have secured more than £75 million in follow-on funding, marking a major commercial milestone for one of the country’s longest-running university cyber security commercialisation programmes.
Funded by the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and delivered by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, CyberASAP is now entering its tenth year with a new cohort of academic teams progressing through the programme.
The funding milestone reflects sustained investor interest in cyber security businesses emerging from UK universities and shows how academic research can be translated into commercially viable products and companies when supported with targeted business development, market validation and investor preparation.
More than 83 universities supported
Since launching, CyberASAP has supported academics from more than 83 UK universities, helping create 45 commercial companies as well as multiple technology licensing agreements.
The programme was designed to close the gap between university research and commercial deployment, particularly in cyber security, where promising technologies can struggle to reach the market without specialist support in areas such as customer discovery, pricing, value propositions, investment and route-to-market strategy.
Its tenth year provides a useful measure of how that support has translated into long-term outcomes. The programme says alumni companies have continued raising capital after completing CyberASAP, contributing to the £75 million follow-on funding total.
One example is CAPSLOCK, a cyber security training business whose founders participated in the accelerator before going on to secure private venture capital and scaling investment.
Dr Andrea Cullen MBE, Co-founder of CAPSLOCK, said the programme helped the team understand the commercial side of building a cyber security business.
CyberASAP gave us the confidence, language and process to talk about our business to investors, customers and each other.
She added that the programme introduced concepts such as pitching, customer understanding and route-to-market planning, skills that later became important when building CAPSLOCK.
Turning academic research into investable companies
CyberASAP’s model is centred on helping research teams test whether their work can solve a real commercial problem before they commit to building a company.
Participants receive support around market validation, commercial awareness and value proposition development, while also gaining access to networks of sector experts, mentors, partners and investors.
The programme puts particular emphasis on customer discovery and use-case validation, allowing researchers to test whether a technology has a sufficiently clear market need and whether potential users would pay for it.
That process can be especially important in cyber security, where technical sophistication alone does not guarantee commercial success. Products also need to fit real procurement processes, regulatory environments, operational workflows and clearly defined risk problems.
For universities, programmes such as CyberASAP can also improve the commercial return from research by creating clearer pathways from intellectual property and technical expertise into spinouts, licensing agreements and investable businesses.
Commercial skills become increasingly important
For many academic founders, the challenge is not developing the technology itself but communicating its value to markets and investors.
CyberASAP addresses this through an 11-month programme that includes bootcamps, workshops, mentoring and specialist input in areas such as intellectual property, new product development, innovation planning, sales, investment, pitching and communications.
The programme culminates in a Demo Day where teams present and demonstrate their proofs of concept.
This structured commercialisation process is designed to help founders move from research-led thinking toward decisions around customer demand, competitive positioning and scalable business models.
Emma Fadlon and Robin Kennedy, Co-Directors of CyberASAP at Innovate UK Business Connect, said the programme’s wider network has played an important role in helping teams align their technologies with current market needs.
Over the past decade, this support has helped alumni turn promising research into investment-ready businesses, unlocking growth, attracting significant follow-on funding and contributing to the programme's wider impact.
They added that as cyber threats continue to evolve, technologies emerging from the programme are increasingly linked to practical security challenges facing businesses and public institutions.
Cyber security commercialisation remains strategically important
The milestone arrives at a time when cyber security remains a growing strategic concern for businesses, governments and infrastructure operators.
As organisations become more dependent on cloud services, AI, connected systems and digital supply chains, the commercial demand for technologies that can detect, prevent and respond to cyber threats continues to expand.
That increases the importance of converting strong academic research into deployable products more quickly.
For the UK, the issue also connects to wider industrial strategy. University spinouts and research commercialisation can create high-growth businesses, attract private capital and support the development of domestic technology capabilities in strategically important sectors.
CyberASAP’s £75 million funding milestone therefore reflects more than investor interest in individual companies. It also demonstrates the broader economic potential of linking university research more directly with commercial markets.
A pipeline from research to market
Innovate UK describes CyberASAP as a pipeline for moving cyber security ideas out of university laboratories and into commercial use.
The programme is selective, with teams competing both to enter and progress through its different stages.
By combining technical expertise with commercial training, it aims to improve the likelihood that promising innovations reach customers rather than remaining within academic environments.
The milestone reached in the programme’s tenth year suggests that this model is producing lasting commercial outcomes.
As the latest cohort moves through the programme, the next phase will be measured not only by the technologies developed but by how many of those ideas become scalable businesses capable of securing investment, customers and long-term market positions.
About CyberASAP
CyberASAP is a UK academic cyber security accelerator designed to help researchers commercialise cyber security technologies, products and services.
The programme provides training, mentoring and commercialisation support across areas including intellectual property, product development, sales, investment and communications.
It is funded by the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and delivered by Innovate UK.
About Innovate UK
Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency and part of UK Research and Innovation. It supports businesses working across strategic sectors through funding, expertise and commercial connections, with a focus on helping high-growth and deep-tech companies move from startup stage toward scale.
Source
- Innovate UK Business Connect: CyberASAP alumni surpass £75m funding milestone as programme enters tenth year
https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/news/cyberasap-alumni-surpass-75m-funding-milestone-as-programme-enters-tenth-year/
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Sara Srifi
Sara is a Software Engineering and Business student with a passion for astronomy, cultural studies, and human-centered storytelling. She explores the quiet intersections between science, identity, and imagination, reflecting on how space, art, and society shape the way we understand ourselves and the world around us. Her writing draws on curiosity and lived experience to bridge disciplines and spark dialogue across cultures.
