BRAMPTON and DAVOS – There were a couple of important Canadian cybersecurity announcements today.
The first was from Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, in partnership with Ryerson University’s DMZ, which announced the launch of the Catalyst Cyber Accelerator, “Canada’s first commercial accelerator specifically designed for scale-up companies in cybersecurity and related fields,” reads the press release.
Headquartered in Brampton’s Innovation District, the Catalyst Cyber Accelerator “will help Canada’s cybersecurity ecosystem by providing Canadian scale-up companies in cybersecurity and related fields the essential tools they need to grow and succeed nationally and internationally.”
The CCA is supported by the Government of Canada, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), and Rogers Communications, in partnership with the City of Brampton. Rogers, Royal Bank of Canada, Herjavec Group, Torys LLP, Amazon and Siemens Canada will join a “Corporates-in-Residence” program and provide guidance and mentorship to companies at the Catalyst Cyber Accelerator.
Scale-ups in the Catalyst Cyber Accelerator will benefit from DMZ’s accelerator programming, including mentoring on product strategy, marketing, talent acquisition, investment attraction, growing sales and more. Companies can make connections with DMZ’s network of 300-plus investors and have free desk space usage. The scale-ups will also have access to over $500,000 worth of exclusive business services and perks provided by over 60 globally recognized businesses.
Applications for the first cohort are being accepted now and will close on March 25, 2020 and over the next two months, Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst and DMZ will embark on a national recruitment roadshow, hosting info sessions in cities across Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
For more information, please click here.
The second announcement came today from the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, where Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and with Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard announced a $510-million investment by Mastercard to establish the new global Intelligence and Cyber Centre in Vancouver (of which $420 million is eligible under the Strategic Innovation Fund).
The Government of Canada is investing $49 million to support this project which will support 380 jobs and enable the creation of 100 new co-op positions, reads the government’s press release.
The centre will focus on creating technologies and standards to ensure that Canadians and others around the world can safely use any device that could be connected to the Internet—phone, tablet, computer, vehicle—without concern that their personal and financial information could be stolen.
In collaboration with universities, businesses and the public sector, the centre will also create software tools that enable organizations of all sizes to build and integrate cybersecurity technologies more efficiently into their operations, reads the release.
