Cybersecurity firm cashes in on U.S. financial market with help from Canadian Technology Accelerator in New York

Moving from a university campus into the heart of one of the largest financial sectors in the world is a big challenge for most start‑ups.

When it came time for Beauceron Security to do just that, the company turned to the Canadian Technology Accelerator (CTA) program for help.

“We had been looking at targeting the United States (U.S.) banking and financial services sector for a while but we didn’t have the contacts or the capital resources,” says David Shipley, President and Co‑Founder of Fredericton, New Brunswick‑based start‑up Beauceron Security.

“It’s an incredibly lucrative market to get into but you can’t do it alone. You need knowledge of the market and the expertise of the big players, and that is what we got from the CTA.”

The firm took part in the CTA New York City Cybersecurity virtual program at the beginning of last year in order to showcase its unique cloud‑based security platform and gain insights into the U.S. financial market.

Beauceron Security had first learned about the work Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) does at a cybersecurity event in Atlanta three years earlier but was unprepared at that time to fully enter the U.S. market.

“We knew about the quality of the TCS staff and CTA programs and that was very appealing to us,” Shipley adds. “What the New York Program gave us was an incredible opportunity to hear from our target customers, learn about the ecosystem and take part in the venture capital sessions. All of that was huge for us.”

They were encouraged to apply to the program by numerous public and private economic development agencies and experts.

Among the key lessons learned during the New York CTA cybersecurity program was the importance of having referenceable clients and warm introductions. Lessons Shipley and team took to heart and worked hard to execute on.

Thanks to the CTA New York program, Beauceron also gained a new channel partner to attract more US customers.

Last fall, Beauceron Security was also accepted as a member of the Independent Community Bankers Association of America (ICBA) ThinkTech Accelerator program, providing it with a way to do both key initiatives that they had learned from the CTA NY program.

Thanks to that program, based out of The Venture Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, they landed their first three community bank customers and built a pipeline of dozens more potential customers.

Beauceron Security began in 2015 after Shipley and a group of information technology (IT) professionals had spent three years developing a cybersecurity awareness platform to help protect the University of New Brunswick from cyber threats. They launched their first commercial offering in 2017.

Their platform puts employees at the center of cybersecurity by providing them with a powerful personal cyber risk dashboard, sharing with them the behaviours they are doing correctly and how they can improve in the future. “We do for the security world what smart watches do for health,” Shipley notes.

Since 2017, company has grown its customer base from 5 customers to more than 300, including some of the largest banks and financial institutions in North America. Last year, grew its annual recurring revenue by 56% to $1.75 million and plans to hire another 15 employees by the end of this year.