RSAC Launch Pad enables companies to pitch high-profile venture capitalists

RSA Conference released the names of three security innovators that will participate in the first-ever RSAC Launch Pad, an event designed to give burgeoning cybersecurity talent a platform to share their industry solutions.

These companies will have the opportunity to pitch their new business to three high-profile venture capitalists (VCs) in a live, Shark Tank-style format. If the VCs believe in the company’s solution, participants may receive VC funding and/or mentorship support.

The finalists were selected by the participating VCs earlier this year from a pool of applicants meeting participation requirements, including being incorporated for two years or less, privately held with no revenue and having no more than a first round of funding. In addition, the participant’s products must not be available for commercial sale to the public on or before RSA Conference 2019.

“We’re continuing to expand the innovation program at RSAC to reach entrepreneurs at all stages in their career, at all levels of product development and from every corner of the globe. With the growing Early Stage Expo, the half-day Innovator and Entrepreneur Seminar, the Innovation Sandbox Contest and the addition of RSAC Launch Pad, we’re striving to give creative thinkers and entrepreneurs the preeminent platform they need to gain exposure and make a lasting change on our industry,” said Sandra Toms, Vice President and Curator of RSA Conference. “The expanding emphasis on innovation at RSA Conference illustrates our commitment to bringing wide varieties of people, content and ideas to the table to address the growing cyberthreat around the world.”

On Tuesday, March 5, the startups will have 10 minutes to convince leading security VCs Theresia Gouw, co-founder of Aspect Ventures, Enrique Salem, partner at Bain Capital Ventures, and Ted Schlein, managing and general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, of their groundbreaking ideas.

The selected companies (in alphabetical order) are:

NuID

NuID is a pioneer in trustless authentication and decentralized digital identity. NuID’s solution uses zero knowledge cryptography and blockchain technology to remove the need for businesses to store passwords. Its mission is to end mass credential breaches by returning data ownership to the user.

Spherical Defence

Spherical Defence is backed by the British Intelligence GCHQ Cyber Accelerator and is building a product for application-layer anomaly detection on internal and external networks powered by deep learning and NLP. Spherical learns tree objects and sessions completely unsupervised and is working with the largest Silicon Valley tech companies.

Styra

Styra enables enterprises to define, enforce and validate security across their Kubernetes environments. Its Declarative Authorization Service provides a graphical library of customizable policies – all based on dynamic context – to mitigate risks, reduce human error and accelerate development.

“Our goal with RSAC Launch Pad is to give young companies and entrepreneurs a springboard to launch their innovative solutions to the most pertinent and pressing challenges in cybersecurity today,” said Enrique Salem, partner at Bain Capital Ventures. “We all look forward to the annual RSAC Innovation Sandbox Contest, which has propelled countless successful startups. But there’s also a growing number of earlier-stage startups – ones that have no revenue and no more than a first round of funding. As an industry, we need to give these founders at the earliest stages of innovation a platform to share their ideas and gain the support needed to turn them into full-scale cybersecurity businesses.”