Four years ago, Plexal and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) launched Cyber Runway, an initiative supporting cyber sector SMEs and founders from across the UK to understand and break down barriers around their development, growth and leadership.
Demonstrating the need for engaging efforts such as Cyber Runway, DSIT has recently released its UK Cyber Security Sectoral Analysis 2025, which found the UK cyber sector:
- Reached £7.8bn gross value added – a 21% increase year-on-year
- Generated £13.2bn revenue – a 12% increase since last year
- Employs 67,300 people – an 11% increase of 6,600 jobs
- Raised £206m across 59 deals in 2024
- Comprises 2,165 firms – up 3.5% since last year
It’s a timely release for the report, swiftly following our second Cyber Runway Live event, which we held in Manchester at The Lowry, Salford Quays, in recognition of our Cyber Runway community. The day included networking, pitch battles, panel discussions, workshops and the graduation of the latest programme participants from our Launch, Grow, Scale and Ignite streams.
With location in mind, the 2025 sectoral analysis found the North West generated the highest proportion of external investment for the first time. Feryal Clark MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for AI and Digital Government, DSIT, called the North West: “…home to a growing number of cyber businesses and soon to be the home of the National Cyber Force in Lancashire, countering threats from terrorists, criminals and states seeking to do harm to the UK and other democratic societies.”
“This Cyber Runway Live marks our fourth graduation event,” said Diane Gilbert, Senior Innovation Lead for Programmes at Plexal. Depicting where our programme fits into the wider cyber sector, she continued: “During four years of Cyber Runway, we’ve built an ecosystem of over 270 unique members spanning the length of the UK, with £152m of investment raised and £285m revenue generated.”
James Stanley, Head of Sectoral Engagement – Cyber Sector at DSIT, said: “Our cyber sectoral analysis has shown growth isn’t just in London and the south, with more than half of companies outside that area, so it’s fitting to host Cyber Runway Live in Manchester, my home city, with Greater Manchester an example of a great cyber cluster.”
THE FOUNDERS JOURNEY
Our first panel of the day was chaired by Yolanda Roach, CEO at Elifa, a secure digital vault and platform, safeguarding personal, financial, end of life and legacy wishes. She sat alongside members of the most recent Cyber Runway Ignite cohort, including:
- Anca Stancu, CEO, Safetech Innovations Global Services, which provides clients with a clearer visibility of their threats.
- Cristian Gherhes, CEO, Lexverify, an AI-powered assistant helping prevent cyber, compliance and legal risks on electronic communications in real time.
- Lucy Burnford, CEO at coc00n, which delivers cyber security services to high value, high risk individuals at a level previously only available to those under government protection.
- Patrick Smith, CEO at zally, a behavioural biometrics company providing continuous user authentication.
Launch motivations
Anca had spent her career working for large corporates – a working environment that eventually took its toll, as she desired more time with her daughter. “I recognised I needed change,” Anca recalled. “Within corporates, there’s no space for creativity. Having founded a business, I enjoy building and engaging with people, as well as the adrenaline rush.”
Patrick has only ever known entrepreneurial life from the age of ten, conquering DJ bookings and full-stack development before entering cyber. “On this journey, you learn to improve yourself and become a better leader,” he said.
“If you’ve never worked for anyone else, you have no reference points, so I follow my gut feeling. You can receive lots of advice but you must believe in yourself. I believe in myself but that can be difficult without a co-founder as you can experience imposter syndrome. Ultimately this encourages you to become a better leader though.”
Asking for help
Yolanda agreed imposter syndrome is a “common trap” founders can fall into, believing they must do everything themselves, prompting her to query how they ask for help.
“Go on the Cyber Runway Ignite programme,” declared Cris with a smile. “The reality is the founder journey is lonely. It helps to have co-founders because you can share the burden but even that can be lonely. As CEO, you need to deal with everything and being vulnerable isn’t something that’s really discussed – especially with male entrepreneurs.
“With Cyber Runway Ignite, Plexal created a safe space in a confidential environment where everyone is facing similar issues in different ways, which revealed magic can happen. Find a circle of trust with people you can relate to.”
Doubling down on the power of a support group, Lucy opined: “You have to be prepared to ask for help and surround yourself with people willing to share advice with no vested interest, but just because they respect your journey.
“Whether it’s commercial, strategic or technical, someone in this ecosystem has valuable advice but if you don’t ask you’ll never get it. It’s invaluable and can provide you with so much more resilience, courage and support. I’m in various WhatsApp groups full of amazing advice, where people share best practice and opportunities – get yourself out there.”
BEYOND THE RUNWAY
Our next panel was led by Plexal’s Diane Gilbert, who was joined by Cyber Runway graduates, including:
- Shelley Langan-Newton, CEO at identity verification platform SQR, which is on a mission to create a safer world by enabling trust and eliminating fraud.
- Jonathan Wood, CEO at Muse Sciences, which delivers risk management expertise into organisations without the need or resources for their own team.
- David Chan, CEO at eCora, a secure-by-default platform for new or existing applications.
Riding the rollercoaster
Beginning the conversation with a look back, Shelley said that while she’d worked in the startup ecosystem, she hadn’t run a startup previously, calling it “a lonely place,” which led her to apply for Cyber Runway Ignite. Describing her early leadership experience, she said: “I honestly didn’t think I would make it this far. It was incredibly tough and I often felt overwhelmed as the journey was a huge rollercoaster. At times, I thought, I could just get a job, earn a salary, and not have to deal with all this stress. But in those moments, I leaned into the Ignite programme and the support from my cohort. That’s how I endured.”
Demonstrating just how Cyber Runway can bring people together, Ignite cohort mate Jonathan has since become a consultant in SQR. “He’s helping me immensely,” Shelley shared. “He’s made incredible introductions and given advice simply because it was the right thing to do.”
Behind-the-scenes
For David, his introduction to Cyber Runway was as a mentor, where he was afforded a look behind the curtain at how the programme operates. With eCora, his fifth company, he felt the business would benefit from enrolling in the Grow programme with co-founder Tom experiencing it first-hand to bring a renewed dynamic to the team with external support.
David proceeded to further his ties with Plexal and UK Government, applying for the Laboratory for AI Security Research (LASR). “We applied because we saw a strong fit between our solution and the AI models they aim to protect,” he said. “Collaboration is a core requirement and we’re expected to work together and develop a Proof of Concept over the course of six weeks.”
Fresh perspective
During Jonathan’s time with Cyber Runway, he began as part of C2 Cyber. “We had a great offer to market, but we were struggling to sell at pace during 2020 to 2022,” Jonathan admitted. Seeking ideas and a community of similarly afflicted CEOs, he joined Cyber Runway Scale, which focused on scaling the company itself, before joining Cyber Runway Ignite the following year. “Ignite came at just the right time for me. It was founder-focused, addressing the personal challenges we faced, but also reinforcing the importance of backing each other up.”
Jonathan subsequently handed C2 to a new CEO with GTM expertise, whose remit is scale, lower annual contract value and higher sales volume. “I took some time off with my kids in a camper van, brought in a new CEO focused on selling because we needed someone dedicated to sales who’d done this all before,” he said. “Everyone has their focus, I discovered mine was in innovation, product design and solving problems customers actually worry about.”
“With Muse Sciences, we’ve had the privilege of working with organisations that take cyber security seriously – without the noise, fear or unnecessary complexity,” Jonathan shared. “Since the soft launch of our fractional CISO service, we’ve added more than one new customer every month. We’re growing faster than we planned, but intentionally keeping it controlled to avoid a rush.”
KEEP YOUR CONNECTIONS CLOSE
Closing the discussion, Diane said: “As a team, we’re passionate about the diversity of the cyber security sector and proud to champion the people behind the industry, all of whom have put in hard work and sacrifice with a clear mission and values. Be sure to remain a part of this enduring support system and connect with your fellow alumni network!”
James Stanley added: Congratulations to you all for completing this Cyber Runway journey! It’s been incredibly rewarding to speak with founders, learn about your innovations, hear your passions and see your success.”
Andrew Roughan, CEO at Plexal, concluded: “We’ve collectively built a collaborative spirit during Cyber Runway, which is evident by everyone in the room – a peer-to-peer network I want to endure throughout the future of your careers and organisations.
“Growing a company is hard. There are lots of stages, lots of crises and issues that will emerge. But programmes and networks like this present the opportunity to come together and help each other; where skills and services are available at an important stage. I hope this movement continues at pace and scale and we’re extremely proud to have been an orchestrator to help your journeys.”
