TAMPA, FL (January 19, 2022) – Tampa Bay Wave, Inc. (Wave), a nonprofit helping entrepreneurs transform
innovative ideas into real-world solutions and scalable businesses, is proud to announce the 2022
CyberTech|X Accelerator program cohort consisting of 15 incredible high-growth cybersecurity startups
from across the United States and abroad, including companies from Canada, France, Germany, Israel, and
India. Of the 15 startups, four startups are led by women entrepreneurs.

Formed with the vision of establishing Tampa Bay’s reputation as a nationally-recognized hub for
cybersecurity talent and innovation, the CyberTech|X Accelerator was created with help from a $100,000
gift from local entrepreneur and ConnectWise founder, Arnie Bellini and his wife, Lauren Bellini, through
their foundation, Bellini Better World. Other key funding partners include A-LIGN, KnowBe4 and EY; plus
strategic partners: Aditum, Bank of America, Cyber Florida, Jabil, Raymond James, and University of South
Florida’s Muma College of Business.

In September 2021, the U.S. Small Business Administration awarded Tampa Bay Wave $50,000 as part of the
nationwide Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC) aimed at spurring investment in
underrepresented communities within the innovation economy at scale. Wave was one of 84 recipients
across the U.S., and one of three in Florida. Wave’s winning proposal for the GAFC prize was developed to
help address the lack of women cybersecurity entrepreneurs and will use the proceeds to provide
specialized programming for women-led cybersecurity startups in the cohort including awareness and
education of SBIR/STTR programs.

The 2022 CyberTech|X Accelerator is a 3-month tech business accelerator program and offers companies
access to key resources such as a dedicated Cohort Director, mentoring with notable tech founders and
cybersecurity industry giants, sales training, pitch coaching and investor introductions in an environment
designed to support high-scale growth. Companies in the accelerator program will also participate in Wave’s
Demo Day at the conclusion of the program on April 6th to pitch their companies to an audience of
accredited investors, venture capitalists and other cybersecurity industry leaders.

The program will also serve as a link between the region’s tech startup community and other cybersecurity
workforce development efforts, such as the University of South Florida cybersecurity degree programs and
Cyber Florida.

Beyond the 3-month long program, selected participants will also receive ongoing support through Tampa
Bay Wave’s virtual CORE membership which provides year-round critical mentorship, strategic
introductions to investors and customers, and other valuable services to further accelerate company
development. Also, Tampa Bay Wave is the only GAN-accredited accelerator program in the State of
Florida; thus, selected companies will also have the benefit of becoming a member of the Global Accelerator
Network which includes $50,000+ worth of discounts and other perks.

“It’s no secret that Florida has seen a major influx of entrepreneurs and investors relocating from traditional
tech hubs. People across the country are finally recognizing what those of us in Florida already know… which
is that our technology & startup ecosystems have been experiencing tremendous growth over the past 5-10
years, including in sectors like cybersecurity” said Linda Olson, president and founder of Tampa Bay Wave.
“As cybersecurity threats continues to rise, programs like the CyberTech|X Accelerator can go a long way to
address these growing security concerns, while showcasing Tampa Bay’s tech and cybersecurity talent.”

The 2022 CyberTech|X Accelerator will be the second year that Tampa Bay Wave offers this accelerator
program. The inaugural 2021 program was deemed incredibly successful, despite being a first-year program,
with roughly 50% of the cohort companies closing their funding rounds within six months of Demo Day plus
two companies who were acquired. One company, Refactr, was acquired by SOPHOS for an undisclosed
amount; Refactr founder Mike Fraser now works for SOPHOS as Vice President of DevSecOps and will be
volunteering as a cybersecurity expert mentor in the 2022 cohort.

The fifteen startups selected for the 2022 cohort are geographically diverse, with fourteen companies
headquartered outside of Florida, including four from outside the U.S.. While some of the startups are in the
early revenue stages, others are currently generating more than 1 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR),
including one with at least 4 million ARR.

The 2022 cohort includes many serial entrepreneurs, some with prior exits, as well as many cybersecurity
professionals and former executives from top tech firms such as Symantec, IBM, McAfee, LifeLock, Google,
and Microsoft. This cohort also includes entrepreneurs who are US Navy and Air Force veterans, including a
lifetime of leadership positions.

The fifteen companies participating in the 2022 CyberTech|X Accelerator cohort include:

Caliola Engineering, LLC
Caliola® designs innovative products to ensure secure and reliable communication. Our OverKey®
cybersecurity product radically simplifies the deployment of military-grade encryption ensuring critical
networks and infrastructure are secured.
CEO: Jennifer Halford
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
CloudWize.io
CloudWize is a no-code platform for maximum cloud security and compliance. A single platform that
automates security protection regardless of where the underlying services reside. CloudWize simplifies the
complete picture of all cloud pillars: security, performance, cost, operations, and compliance.
CEO: Chen Goldberg
Location: Netanya, Israel
Crashtest Security
Crashtest Security offers a DAST scanner that supports agile development teams to release continuously
secure web apps and APIs through black box scanning.
CEO: Felix Brombacher
Location: Munich, Germany
Lessontrek
Lessontrek is a modern and secure SaaS that delivers and tracks cyber training. It provides real-life threat
intel and vulnerabilities fixed by Microsoft. Lessontrek is owned and operated by a US Navy veteran with 10
years of startup and Fortune 500 experience on the frontlines of cybersecurity in Silicon Valley and
Microsoft.
CEO: Jason Pessemier
Location: Seattle, WA
Memi Corporation
A frictionless identity management and verification platform, Memi enables users to authenticate each
other and to businesses using a centralized platform while protecting the user’s personal information. Each
Memi user is linked to a government issued photo ID, providing verified and trusted user data.
CEO: Kevin Gordon
Location: Winnipeg, Canada
Metapyxl
Metapyxl is a digital content authentication software providing solutions to address vulnerabilities
associated with protecting, authenticating, tracking & licensing digital media while giving creators a
peer-to-peer trusted marketplace to safely distribute their protected content.
CEO: Tiffany Walling McGarity
Location: Delaware City, DE
NUTS Technologies Inc.
Revolutionizing hybrid cloud technologies with the world’s first smart data container designed for the
network making your data Simply Private. Our secure modular data containers protect your data in any
environment without the need of centralized access controls.
CEO: Yoon Auh
Location: Glencoe, IL
Ragnarok
Ragnarok is a cloud cyber storage startup offering a solution to the growing problem in ransomware. We
decentralize and secure cloud storage using our unique technology to make the data stored quantum-safe
and secure it against a host of vulnerabilities, from data breaches to misconfigurations.
Location: Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
Redactable
Redactable helps companies permanently redact their confidential documents. Our proprietary Redaction
Wizard engages secure redaction architecture to ensure that your data is truly eradicated. Most of all, our
seamless deployment method guarantees that your confidential documents never leave your private
network.
CEO: Amanda Levay
Location: Norfolk, VA, USA
Sequretek
Sequretek is an enterprise cybersecurity company with solutions in the areas of enterprise security
monitoring, detection and response (XDR), identity access governance and authentication (IGA), and
endpoint threat detection and response (EDR).
CEO: Pankit Desai
Location: Woodbridge, NJ
Sicura
Sicura is a new way of achieving compliance in high-security, highly-regulated industries. We work with your
existing automation and security tools to enforce and prove a compliant baseline across your IT landscape.
Sicura enables you to meet technical controls of common compliance regulations, avoid errors and
misconfigurations, and prevent security drift by providing automated remediation for your IT infrastructure.
President/CPO: Lisa Umberger
Location: Baltimore, MD
Snowpack
With Snowpack, Become Invisible. Snowpack combines privacy and security in a unique overlay network to
make you (and your data) invisible on the Internet.
CEO: Sebastien Groyer
Location: Paris, France
TEKRiSQ, INC.
TEKRiSQ drives cybersecurity maturity in Small & Medium sized Businesses (SMBs). We align with trusted
advisors using our engagement platform to identify, communicate, and remediate risk in a streamlined
fashion. We broaden our value through data exchange to update, report, validate and make remediations
auditable by trusted advisors in real-time.
CEO: Bill Haber
Location: Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
Transmosis
Transmosis is a cybersecurity workforce developer that enables American workers to develop careers in the
growing information security industry. Transmosis is the creator of transmosisONE, a Fortune 5000
cybersecurity platform designed to protect SMBs from cyber attack with integrated cyber liability coverage.
CEO: Chase Norlin
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Trust Stamp
Trust Stamp secures biometric and personal information without removing its utility, enabling institutions to
deploy biometric systems without the risk of biometric data theft.
CEO: Andrew Gowasack
Location: Atlanta, GA

Participating companies will benefit from the Tampa Bay Wave’s CyberTech|X Advisory Council, made up of
cybersecurity experts from Wave’s Mentor Network, as well as representatives from the program’s funding
partners and other cybersecurity experts. Members of the 2022 advisory council include:

● Asim Murad, SVP, Technology Partnership & Business Development, Bank of America
● Cathleen Ryan Reneer, Managing Director, JP Morgan Chase
● Christopher Rogers, Chief Security Officer and Deputy CIO, SYKES Enterprises
● Danielle M. Alvarez, Cybersecurity Senior Manager, Accenture
● Erich Kron, Cybersecurity Expert and Evangelist, KnowBe4
● Ernest Ferraresso, Associate Director, Cyber Florida
● Jed Young, Vice President & CISO, Jabil
● Kishen Sridharan, Cybersecurity Partnership and Outreach Executive, Office of the CISO, Raymond
James
● Lee Gray, Brigadier General (Retired), U.S. Army
● Mal Ensmann, Sr. Program Planner, Cyber Florida
● Mike Fraser, VP of DevSecOps, Sophos (formerly Refactr)
● Petar Besalev, SVP Cybersecurity and Privacy Services, A-LIGN
● Rolando Torres, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, abacode
● Russ Miller, CTO Secure Access, OPSWAT
● Ruth Brophy, Senior Advisor, HIG Capital
● Scott Margolis, Managing Director, Data Privacy & Protection; RegTech, Ernst & Young
● Sean Drake, Managing Partner, Stony Lonesome Group
● Vince Rocca, CIO, Digital Hands
● Thom Kenney, Chief Data Officer, Director of Special Operations Forces Artificial Intelligence,
USSOCOM

To learn more about the CyberTech|X Accelerator Program, visit:
https://www.tampabaywave.org/cybertech/.

ABOUT TAMPA BAY WAVE:

Tampa Bay Wave, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing entrepreneurs with facilitated access to the
resources, expertise, and capital they need to grow vibrant technology-based companies in Tampa Bay.
Since March 2013, Tampa Bay Wave has supported more than 300 tech startups thanks to grant funding
from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) and the U.S. Small Business Administration
(SBA), plus support from its economic development partners Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa.
Tampa Bay Wave also receives support from individuals such as Michael and Korrine Vuur Fraser and Kyle
Taylor, founder of The Penny Hoarder, as well as from corporate partners such as A-LIGN, Bank of America,
Bellini Better World, Encore Bank/STi, EY, Florida Blue, Florida Funders, Frontier Communications,
JPMorgan Chase, KnowBe4, MacDonald Ventures, Nielsen Foundation, Rays/Rowdies Foundation, Tampa
Electric, Truist Foundation, and Vinik Family Foundation. Tampa Bay Wave is also a member of the GAN
network of accelerators. For more information, visit www.tampabaywave.org.