Founded in Vienna, Va., Bricata is part of a growing cybersecurity talent pool that has manifested itself in Northern Virginia. After watching Northern Virginia become the growth capital of this sector for some time, the state of Maryland has moved to capture a piece of the ever-important cybersecurity market. Earlier this week, Bricata was crowned the winner of the Defense & Security category in the 2015 InvestMaryland Challenge — winning a $100,000 state grant and an Army Research Lab Incubator Opportunity from the state of Maryland. Now the company will be moving to Maryland with big plans for 2015.
The $100,000 will be immediately used to hire a larger staff, sign an office lease and further develop Bricata Threat Exchange (BTX), Bricata CEO and co-founder John Trauth told DC Inno. BTX is a cloud infrastructure platform that provides highly scalable systems that will isolate and process suspected cyberthreat data.
The Army Research Lab (ARL) Incubator Opportunity will enable Bricata to use laboratory space at the Adelphi Laboratory Center for one year beginning in June 2015. It also means that ARL will negotiate a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Bricata. While the incubator opportunity means that Bricata will be offered a host of utilities and a collaborative co-working space, the most advantageous aspect of the program may be its direct network to collaborate with Army scientists and engineers.
“We believe the interaction with the Army scientists and engineers to be the most strategic aspect of the opportunity. Being exposed to these folks will undoubtedly spur innovation, thought leadership, and provide direction of where the market is headed, both Federally as well as Commercially,” Trauth told DC Inno
Trauth said that the company recently secured a lease with bwtech@UMBC, University of Baltimore County’s research & technology park. The startup will be opening its office in Baltimore, Md., on June 1. In addition, Trauth said that, “If sales materialize like we think they will, we will be hiring 16 new full time employees by the end of 2015. These will be folks involved in Sales, both Inside and Outside, Pre-Sales Engineers, BTX Engineers, and Code Developers.”
Bricata expects to complete a Series A by the end of 2015.
Northern Virginia, meanwhile, is quickly becoming the Silicon Valley of the cybersecurity industry, with major players like Endgame hailing from Arlington, rising stars Distil Networks and Invincea in Fairfax and Arlington, respectively, and the highly competitive Reston-based cybersecurity incubator, Mach37, being backed by Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT). If Maryland would like to cultivate a high-growth potential industry like cybersecurity within its borders, then perhaps attracting top-level talent, like Bricata, is just one step in this process.
