Event round-up: Cyber Innovation Den 2025
Introduction
The seventh annual Cyber Innovation Den exceeded expectations this year with not only an incredible day on insightful keynotes and panels but also a day of high-quality innovative pitches.
On Wednesday 15 October, techUK hosted its flagship cyber security event, featuring its seventh annual Cyber Innovation Pitching Competition.
This year’s attendees heard insights from thought leaders in the sector including:
Josh Walters, Partner, Osney Capital
Saba Ahmed, Managing Director, Cyber Security, Accenture
Aurorah Smith, Founder, Uncharted Brands & Commercial Director
Saba Ahmed, Managing Director, Cyber Resilience, Accenture
Lawrence Munro, Interim CISO, Tide
Elizabeth Huthman, Cyber Director, KPMG
Simon Shiu, Visiting Professor of Cyber Security, University of Bristol
Andrew Elliot, Deputy Director, Cyber Security, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology
Stuart McKean, Chairman and Founder, Nine23
Diane Gilbert, Senior Innovation Lead - Programmes, Plexal
Our speakers highlighted the moment in the cyber investment landscape, the evolving threat landscape and the effective growth strategies for cyber-SMEs.
techUK’s Cyber Innovator 2025 announced!
Celebrating its seventh year, the Cyber Innovation Den pitching competition showcased pioneering SMEs and start-ups presenting their advanced cyber security products and services before an esteemed panel of judges, including Lawrence Munro, Aurorah Cheney Smith, Elizabeth Huthman and Saba Ahmed.
The wide variety of pitches shared a common theme of excellence and creative thinking making the choice of winner evermore challenging. Arqit was named Cyber Innovator 2025. Congratulations again to Arqit and their team for a brilliant pitch! You can watch Arqit’s pitch here.
You can find more information about the Den and our nine other pitches below in our dedicated pitching competition section below.
Theme 1: Investing in UK cyber sector
This year’s Cyber Innovation Den was centred around growth and innovation two things that would not be possible without smart investment. Over the course of the day, discussions on investment centred around the three main pillars for growth – investors, innovators and the cyber ecosystem.
The UK is seeing a rise in domestic and international interest at each stage of investment. From angel to later stage and generalist, capital stacks are becoming increasingly available for the cyber sector to tap into at every stage of growth. Innovators are also not in short supply, innovative ideas and talent continue to come out of the sector and academia, creating a strong flow of tech services and innovation to choose from. Finally, the government has been essential in strengthening the cyber security ecosystem promising a 16 million pound investment to help set up young companies to be in the right position for initial investment, further fuelling the ecosystem whilst driving its trajectory towards growth.
Theme 2: The cyber threat landscape
2025 was the year of cyber security stress testing, the string of varied attacks across multiple sectors has shown us that these threats are a national resilience issue and no one is immune.
The discussion examined the evolving threat landscape from generative AI and deepfakes to realistic phishing, social engineering, and advanced malware. Attackers are operating with unprecedented speed, driving increases in data theft, operational disruption, and public exposure. The rapid shift to cloud environments has significantly expanded the attack surface, while ransomware is increasingly targeting sectors that cannot afford downtime, fuelled by AI-driven social engineering. This escalation calls for a shift in mindset: resilience must move from response to anticipation – using the same technologies being weaponised against us to build adaptive, predictive defences.
Theme 3: Growth and change in the cyber security sector
The panel looked ahead to the changes set to shape cyber security in 2026, with AI leading the charge – driving automation across defence, offence, and compliance. Alongside this came a focus on privacy-enhancing technologies, stronger data protection, and readiness for post-quantum cryptography, all signalling a shift toward smarter, more adaptive security.
On talent, the speakers agreed that innovation and visible impact are what draw young talent. Smaller firms can offer early responsibility and clear ownership, while larger ones can inspire through purpose and by helping generalists grow into specialists. For SMEs hoping to stand out, the message was clear: tell your story well. Define the problem you solve and why it matters, and lean on networks – accelerators, academia, and investors – to build credibility and lasting partnerships in this highly collaborative industry.
Theme 4: Cyber growth action plan
The newly published Cyber Growth Action Plan, developed through extensive industry consultation, is set to shape the National Cyber Security Strategy and highlight government and industries priorities in the coming months. The report reveals a growing gap between the rapid rise in cyber threats and the sector’s capacity to meet demand, emphasising the need for targeted growth on the demand side and a stronger focus on cyber resilience across organisations.
A cultural shift is needed to raise public awareness, attract talent, and elevate cyber to a boardroom priority. Additional insights include expanding the cyber insurance market, encouraging UK companies to return domestic operations, providing clearer sector leadership and expanding the role of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
Theme 5: SME and start-up scale up
SMEs play a critical role in cyber security, acting as the agile innovators capable of developing solutions that keep pace with evolving threat actors. Yet scaling in this sector is challenging. The panel emphasised the importance of identifying key customers and understanding the value they seek, ensuring products are both necessary and market ready.
Discussion also highlighted the positive impact of the Cyber Growth Action Plan, particularly in creating pipelines for growth. Practical advice for scaling included focusing on repeatable solutions rather than over-customising for individual public sector clients, choosing investors aligned with long-term goals, leveraging grants strategically, and building processes from the outset with scalability in mind.
The Cyber Innovation Den pitching competition – watch the pitches here!
Athenian Tech’s AI-powered threat intelligence and digital risk monitoring platform detects, predicts, and mitigates cyber threats – including deepfakes, misinformation, and ransomware – across enterprises and critical infrastructure.
Arqit Quantum Inc’s Encryption Intelligence scans networks to reveal cryptographic choices, assesses risk against current and post-quantum threats, and guides simple, AI-driven remediation steps—helping organizations secure their links today and prepare for a quantum-safe future.
Secure Agentics’ Adrian platform monitors and controls AI agents in real time, using behavioural analysis and “chain of thought” reasoning to detect and prevent malicious activity in critical and regulated environments.
Securium’s AI-powered Safeguard and Discover platforms detect, analyse, and mitigate online harms – from grooming and exploitation to extremist content – providing real-time, actionable intelligence for law enforcement, businesses, and investigators.
Huntbase’s AI-driven threat hunting platform augments security analysts by connecting alerts, enriching context, and guiding investigations to resolve complex cyber threats faster while preserving institutional knowledge.
Harmonic Security’s AI-driven data protection platform safeguards sensitive enterprise information in real time, enabling teams to adopt AI tools securely and confidently without risking leaks.
SQR’s AI-powered identity platform issues biometrically secured, reusable identity tokens to enable privacy-first, fraud-resistant digital verification online and soon in person.
Cyber Security Stacks’ Resonance Protocol delivers autonomous, blockchain-inspired ransomware resilience by continuously validating device integrity, isolating compromised systems, and safeguarding IT, OT, and IoT environments.
Phoenix Security’s AI-powered Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) platform maps cloud and software vulnerabilities to ownership, location, and business impact, using specialized AI agents to automate triage, enrichment, and remediation for faster, targeted risk reduction.
Hoplon AI provides agentic cyber security for SMEs, delivering protection, automated compliance, and threat remediation, integrating seamlessly with existing security tools to democratize enterprise-grade defence and accelerate ISO 27001 readiness with rapid onboarding and real-time risk intelligence.
If you’d like to find out more about techUK’s Cyber Resilience Programme, our helpful Cyber SME Forum and how you can get involved with both, please do get in touch!
