UK-Based CyberSmart Makes Waves in SME Cybersecurity Market

CyberSmart, the category leader in simple and accessible automated cybersecurity technology for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), has today announced a record year of growth, marked by a large funding round, headcount and customer growth as well as geographical market expansion.

In addition to completing its Series B funding round in January 2023 with £12.75 million, the company’s revenue has grown by 110% from £2 million ARR to £4.2 million ARR in the last financial year; expanded its customer base by an additional 1,000 customers across various verticals such as healthcare, retail, education, as well as construction; and recruited extensively from a team of 40 to 60 employees.

This includes the appointment of Vicky Cartwright as Director of Marketing (formerly with Kaspersky), and Mike Aspinall as CFO (formerly with Exonar, Questionmark and Parity Group). With its expansion into Ireland, and more recently, Australia and New Zealand, CyberSmart shows no signs of slowing down in its mission to make robust cybersecurity attainable to SMEs worldwide.

Born out of GCHQ’s cyber accelerator programme in January 2017, CyberSmart’s security offering now includes guided processes to government-grade certification, round-the-clock monitoring of an organisation’s security posture, staff training, and vulnerability scanning.

Additionally, customers can secure free insurance via CyberSmart partners, Aviva and Superscript, upon certification (i.e Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus). The company has also completed a soft launch of its new ‘Privacy Toolbox’ product to help SMEs stay on top of GDPR compliance and data protection requirements. All this, at the cost of a cup of coffee, per user, per day.

The value and excellence of CyberSmart’s products and services are reflected in the numerous awards received in the last year alone. This includes winning the SC Awards Europe 2022 for Best SME Security Solution, CompTIA Spotlight Awards 2022 for UK Innovative Vendor, UK IT Industry Awards 2022 for UK Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Cybersecurity Breakthrough Awards for SMB Cybersecurity Solution of the Year.

Since establishment, CyberSmart has also nurtured partnerships with several category-leading businesses; not least, Vodafone and Starling Bank. Concurrently, the company serves more than 700 MSPs and distributors, including major players like Exertis, Brigantia, Millgate and Ingram Micro.

What’s more, in late July last year, CyberSmart was selected by European Innovation Platform, KickStart, to take part in a 10-week scale-up acceleration programme that will play a pivotal role in introducing their technology to big corporations across the DACH region.

CyberSmart’s exceptional success has only continued to attract a wealth of talent who seek to take part in and contribute to the company’s growth journey. Indeed, Vicky Cartwright has joined the company as Director of Marketing, following a decade of experience as Marketing Director with Kaspersky; while Mike Aspinall was recently appointed CFO, having formerly worked with Exonar,

Questionmark and Parity Group. Certainly, the company has attracted leading and returning investors from IQ Capital, Eos Venture Partners, and Winton Ventures to Oxx, British Patient Capital, Legal & General Capital, and Solano Partners.

“The threat of cybercrime continues to rise, particularly for smaller businesses without the resources or knowledge to protect themselves. However, CyberSmart continues to go from strength to strength in its mission to protect this underserved market,” said Phil Edmondson-Jones, partner at Oxx. “Since investing in CyberSmart, we’ve been delighted to see the business celebrate a year of rapid growth, begin its expansion into other markets, and refine its offer to SMEs. And we’re confident that 2023 will only deliver further growth.”

“When I co-founded CyberSmart in 2017, I went in with the mission of empowering SMEs to future-proof themselves against the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape. It is humbling to see how far we have come since our days coding as part of the GCHQ Accelerator Programme, and the number of businesses we are supporting today both in the UK and beyond,” said Jamie Akhtar, CEO and co-founder of CyberSmart. “I am grateful to our growing team and all of our investors who are walking alongside us on this journey and look forward to seeing what we can achieve in the year ahead.”