NSW Gov picks CyRise to operate cyber accelerator

CyRise has been picked to run the NSW Government’s cyber security accelerator program based in Sydney’s “Tech Central” district.

The accelerator will offer three-day boot camps, a 14-week accelerator program for start-ups and a new scale up program for later stage scaling businesses.

“This program will help companies sharpen their products, fine-tune business models and boost their connections with international investors,” said Alister Henskens, NSW Government Minister for Enterprise, Investment and Trade.

The Government wants the $1 million accelerator program to help position the state as a “leading global destination for cyber innovation”.

CyRise is a cyber security venture accelerator program funded by NTT and Deakin University, focused on  early-stage cyber security start-ups in the Asia-Pacific region.

It offers entrants to its program $50,000 as part of a capped SAFE note, in addition to mentoring and a corporate partner network.

CyRise mentors include Casey Ellis, Cofounder, Chairman and CTO at security services marketplace Bugcrowd, Jeff Paine, Digital Innovation Lead at AWS, Forticode creator Tony Smales, and Triskele Labs’ Sal Unwin, and at Watchful’s  Ran Lewinski.

Advisors to CyRise include figures from KPMG, Telstra, Whispir, Thales, EnergyAustralia, NBN, BPUA, ANZ, Interactive, Microsoft, Fujitsu, Origin Energy, AusPost and others.

CyRise alumni include Devicie, CyMast, HackHunter and NetCrypt.