ECSO gathers EU cybersecurity scaleups & industry leaders for business matchmakings in Milan

On 13-14 September 2018, the third edition of ECSO Access-to-the-Market-&-Finance series, dedicated to support European scale-ups and SMEs, took place in Milan, Italy. The Milan edition gathered 22 ambitious scaleups, showcasing their innovative cyber security technologies, and 16 influential integrators and end-users, searching for promising technological solutions to protect their industries against cyber threats. In total, around 70 participants from across Europe were registered and more than 40 B2B meetings organised.

The two days event was organised in cooperation with EIT Digital Accelerator, a leading European digital innovation and entrepreneurial education organisation. On 13 September, EIT Digital Accelerator’s team organised a special training session for scaleups, where experienced business developers helped them to prepare for the next day’s pitching session with integrators and end-users.

On 14 September, the day started with a panel discussion, titled ‘Needs and Solutions: How European companies can become global champions in cybersecurity’. Panel members included Sebastiano Toffaletti – Secretary General of Digital SME Europe and co-chair of ECSO Working Group 4, Massimiliano Dragoni – Senior Policy Officer at European Commission’s Startup Europe project, and Wolfgang Kniejski – Access-to-Market Lead at EIT Digital Accelerator. The discussion was moderated by Luigi Rebuffi, Secretary General of ECSO and focused on the important fact that the majority of European companies are small SMEs which constitute the bulk of the EU market. All the panellists agreed that by creating more market transparency, facilitating European SMEs growth and going beyond the regional and national home markets, a strong European cyber security market will be ensured.

After the panel discussion, the participating scaleups had an opportunity to pitch their innovative cyber security solutions. In the afternoon, the confidential business-to-business meetings took place. The support to a forum for the strategic business interactions among SMEs and industry leaders, makes ECSO a key player in consolidating the community of the European cyber security industry.

Previous editions of ECSO Access-to-Market-&-Finance series were organised in cooperation with the most recognized European cybersecurity ecosystem stakeholders, including Startup Estonia, a national initiative for startup ecosystem, and Systematic Paris-Region, a regional competitiveness cluster. These events have already gathered around 50 innovative SMEs and 40 leading industries, resulting in several successfully closed investment deals.

The next edition, jointly organised with the leading German cybersecurity company Secunet Security Networks AG and German IT security association TeleTrusT Bundesverband IT-Sicherheit e.V., will take place on 28 November 2018 in Berlin, Germany.
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