CylonLab cyber security incubator launches in London, aims to link startups with UK government
Sarah Spickernell / City A.M. :
Context & Ripple Effects
With CyLon, London gets what the related coverage bills as Europe's first dedicated cyber security incubator — and its distinguishing feature is the explicit pipeline to UK government, positioning the state as an early customer and validator rather than a distant regulator. The launch lands in a city already staking claims across tech: Dealroom has it ranked fourth globally after overtaking Paris.
The model proved durable within months: by November the UK committed to a £165 million DARPA-style fund for security startups that formalized the state-money channel CyLon was built around, while Kaspersky opened its own bootcamp to scout the same talent pool. New York later copied the playbook with the $30M Cyber NYC initiative in 2018.
First-order effects
- Early-stage UK security founders gain a structured route into government contracts and relationships that are otherwise hard for pre-revenue teams to reach, with CyLon as the broker.
Second-order effects
- Corporate players like Kaspersky respond by building their own scouting channels (online bootcamps) to compete for the same cohort of founders before incubators lock them in.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, states stop buying cyber capability through open procurement and instead cultivate supplier ecosystems directly — a trajectory the UK continued from the 2020 Cyber Discovery schools program through to renaming its AI Safety Institute as the AI Security Institute in 2025.
The trend: Governments are shifting from passive buyers of cyber security to active ecosystem builders, using incubators, funds, and education pipelines to shape their domestic vendor base.