Cybersecurity companies looking to disrupt the industry came under one virtual roof Wednesday night to pitch during the inaugural Tampa Bay Wave CyberTech|X Accelerator pitch night.
The 15 companies span the U.S., with one company located in the U.K. The program was supported by many local cyber companies' sponsorship, including KnowBe4, A-LIGN and Bellini Better World, the foundation run by ConnectWise co-founder Arnie Bellini and his wife, Lauren Bellini.
We rounded up what you need to know about each company below. You can see their pitches again in full during the accelerator's first Demo Day, April 23.
Arcanum Technology
Headquartered: Athens, Georgia
What they do: Arcanum Technology uses patented authentication technology that allows users to create a four-character password that never has to be changed, regardless of a data breach.
What else to know: The symbols and characters used in the password could go beyond your typical keyboard symbols and could include NFL logos, Disney characters and more, along with colors, numbers and letters.
Arch Access
Headquartered: Pittsburgh
What they do: Arch Access delivers cybersecurity and supply chain risk management within a marketplace of resources needed to achieve compliance.
Seeking: The company is raising $300,000 for eight months of runway. They're focused on VC funds in Pittsburgh and the Tampa Bay ecosystem.
What else to know: According to its founder, the market opportunity is $17 billion to $80 billion in the defense industry alone. The company has netted $90,000 in year 1 and is expected to hit $3 million by year 2. The company will be cash-flow positive by month eight, according to the founder, and is looking at a year 3 exit.
Castle One
Headquartered: Madison, Wisconsin
What they do: Castle One offers a cybersecurity suite for startups that protects devices, emails and passwords for a monthly fee.
What else to know: Its founder Noon Eggenberger alleges the typical managed cybersecurity provider costs $126 per employee, per month. His company offers cybersecurity coverage for $25/employee/month, ideal for bootstrapped startups. His co-founder also worked in the cyber department for the CIA.
Cervais Inc.
Headquartered: Ashburn, Virginia
What they do: Cervais Inc. develops products designed to provide endpoint protection to the internet of things devices.
What else to know: The initial focus is remote and traveling workers, with an emphasis on professional services employees and local, state and federal employees. Its founder Janelin Johnson stated the total addressable market is $30.9 billion for endpoint security.
Tenacious.com
Headquartered: Tampa
What they do: Tenacious' CySkor technology is to cybersecurity as to what Credit Karma is to credit scores, according to founder Andrew Adams. It offers employers a private, third-party solution they can give as a benefit to their employees, helping reduce corporate cyber risk. Weekly and monthly reports are given out to employees, who can then make adjustments to better protect their personal devices and employee-owned endpoints.
What else to know: Adams stated the technology is in the cloud, and the real opportunity is through partnerships. There could be a potential annual revenue of $127.6 million.
Elroi
Headquartered: Detroit, Michigan
What they do: Elroi provides consumers with data visualization and a centralized location to exercise their privacy rights and helps companies meet compliance requirements through a data ecosystem.
Seeking: In a current funding round to raise $1.6 million for an 18-month runway.
What else to know: There will be a Q2 launch of their consumer solution and a Q4 launch for the enterprise solution. They have currently launched the enterprise pilot program.
EveryKey
Headquartered: Cleveland
What they do: EveryKey is a universal smart key that wirelessly unlocks your phone, computer, tablet, door, car and more, and automatically logs you into your online accounts when you're nearby, then locks everything down when you walk away.
What else to know: The patented product was successfully funded on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding platforms. It is sold in Best Buy, Office Depot and other retailers.
Foretrace
Headquartered: Woodbine, Maryland
What they do: Foretrace assesses the exposure of your infrastructure, third-party vendors and clients with the Foretrace platform, using the same tools and techniques as cyber adversaries.
What else to know: They're enrolling their first customers in April and state they already have revenue from partners using their product.
Gridlock
Headquartered: London
What they do: Gridlock is a secure way to store cryptocurrency, using multiparty computations versus trusting a third-party or storing it yourself.
What else to know: Its founder states there is a $1 trillion market cap.
Hook Security
Headquartered: Greenville, South Carolina
What they do: Hook Security trains people to recognize technology-based manipulation through the latest in psychological security training techniques.
What else to know: The founder is currently going through his third exit and "looks forward to an exit with this in the future."
Outpost Security
Headquartered: Madison, Wisconsin
What they do: Outpost Security modernizes security alerting for Fortune 500 companies, reducing alert fatigue, freeing up time and resources, and enabling security defenses to mature rapidly to meet the dynamic challenges of the constantly evolving internal and external threat landscape.
What else to know: The company started in fall 2019 and has acquired three "large" customers, getting total revenue of nearly $500,000. The founder estimates an annual recurring revenue of $900,000 over the next three years.
Phylum Inc.
Headquartered: Evergreen, Colorado
What they do: Phylum Inc. is creating the next generation of software supply chain security products, providing fully automated risk analysis of software dependencies.
What else to know: There is a focus on open-source software, which can bring more than a cyber risk and opens a hacker up to indirectly control a user's software.
Refactr
Headquartered: Seattle
What they do: Refactr is looking to bridge the gap between DevOps and cybersecurity. It offers a low-code DevSecOps automation platform for everyone. Refactr's mission is to empower developers, security and operations to operate at the DevOps speed collaboratively.
What else to know: Its founder spent more than 18 years in the Air Force as a cybersecurity expert and Refactr has 70 companies as customers.
SmarterD
Headquartered: Santa Clara, California
What they do: SmarterD automates building and managing a cybersecurity program through its next-gen cybersecurity program management and analytics platform.
Seeking: $3 million to $5 million
What else to know: They have a 2021 projected annual recurring revenue of $1.5 million and have $280,000 in revenue to date.
Tauruseer
Headquartered: Jacksonville
What they do: Tauruseer is an integrated risk management platform that provides leadership visibility and control into the risk performance of their IT workforce. In a single place, enable continuous security, governance and compliance throughout the DevOps lifecycle.
What else to know: The product is patent-pending, and they have raised $225,000 in a seed round.
