22 Oct Some news of the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO)
The ECA is following with great interest the activities and initiatives of the ECSO (European Cyber Security Organisation). We would like to present to ECA members and friends three recent initiatives taken by ECSO, which we think are valuable, and that all European Cybersecurity stakeholders should be aware of.
Leveraging the funding capabilities of the European cybersecurity companies
During the 7th Cyber Investor Days held virtually this last May, ECSO introduced a proposal to launch a pan-European financial mechanism to foster the growth of European cybersecurity companies. This mechanism, which could take the shape of a « fund of funds », would in turn help private funds to invest more in the most promising European cybersecurity companies and facilitate their growth. More here in the press release.
ECA can testify that in many of its contacts with scale-ups the question of financing R&D and commercial development is a key early challenge. Funding is not the only issue though, boosting the public exposure of European cybersecurity companies is also vital, but so far when we consider the financial backing French or German or other European cybersecurity companies receive, the level is much lower when compared with US or Chinese scale-ups.
With recovery plans now on the agenda of the European Commission and the Member States, it is important to recognise and support ECSO’s initiative, which has been widely endorsed and joined by many European cybersecurity investment funds.
ECA does converge with ECSO in its belief that a pan-European financial mechanism would encourage cybersecurity companies to expand their business beyond their national borders and develop on a new scale. Only with the pan-European cybersecurity investment fund, we will be able to see the rise of the European champions in cybersecurity.
In the meantime, we invite European cybersecurity companies raising a funding round to apply for the next ECSO Investor Days (30 November – 1 December): https://www.ecs-org.eu/agenda#8th-ecso-cyber-investor-days
A new ‘Cybersecurity label made in Europe’
Everyone knows the certification provided to cybersecurity products and services in the different EU Member States, be it in France (ANSSI) or in Germany (BSI). Beside the certification, there are also some labels issued to companies providing IT, cybersecurity solutions, for example, ‘Software made in Germany’ is a label attributed by the organisation BITMi.
ECSO has now launched its own European label: ‘Cybersecurity Made in Europe’. This label is an industry-driven marketing tool, designed to promote European cybersecurity companies and increase their visibility on the European and on the global market. Companies willing to obtain the Label will have to prove their eligibility to certain criteria: being headquartered in Europe, having no major ownership/control from outside of Europe, having more than a half of their cybersecurity R&D activities and staff located in Europe, providing trustworthy cybersecurity solutions; respecting European data and privacy requirements
Only qualified issuers accredited by ECSO has the right to issue the Label, such as SYSTEMATIC Paris-Region in France. Prospective companies can choose any qualified issuer of their choice regardless of the country in which their European headquarters are located.,
ECA is proud to support this initiative and invites cybersecurity companies to get in touch with ECSO for more information.
More about the ‘Cybersecurity Made In Europe’ here.
The new ECSO Cybersecurity Market Radar has been published
ECSO has also recently published its 3rd release of its Cybersecurity Market Radar which serves as a visualisation tool to present European cybersecurity products and services available on the market. As the Market radar has now reached it limits due to the already-exhausted capacity to integrate and present European cybersecurity companies (>150), ECSO has tested a dynamic marketplace platform, named Registry, with the support of 5 European regions within the framework of the Cyber Valleys Project: Estonia, Brittany, North Rhine Westphalia, Luxembourg, Castilla y Leon. It covers a wide range of companies and provides several elements of information on them. A first basic version of the Registry of the ECSO SME Hub is also expected to be launched in January 2021. It will be open to all European cybersecurity SMEs, neutral and unbiased.
Other mappings exist, some are more focused on early-stage start up’s, in France, a consultancy company Wavestone publishes also one every year. However, ECSO’s radar is impressively extensive.
When ECA launched its Cybersecurity Focus group end of 2019, it was decided to work on a Cybersecurity mapping on our side, the version 1 has been published in July 2020, a version 2 is currently under review. We consider the two mappings, ECSO’s and ECA’s, are largely complementary, so we will pursue our talks with ECSO in order to make sure that the best information is delivered to all stakeholders, Cyber companies themselves, buyers and decision-makers, financial organisations…
Meanwhile, we encourage our members and friends to give a thorough look at the ECSO Cybersecurity Market Radar.