#InfosecurityEurope: Angoka Named UK’s Most Innovative Cyber SME of 2023

The UK Department of Science, Information and Technology (DSIT) has selected Angoka as the 2023 Most Innovative Cyber SME.

The judges’ unanimous decision was announced by Andrew Elliot, deputy director for cybersecurity, innovation & skills at DSIT, during Infosecurity Europe on June 21, 2023.

Angoka, which offers machine-to-machine communication security solutions for industrial and smart city use cases, was chosen among 14 finalists spanning a myriad of cybersecurity solutions and services to tackle an array of common and evolving threats.

Paul Ellis, Angoka’s co-founder and business development manager, said he was “humbled by the prize and very proud to be part of the security industry.”

Shadi Razak, co-founder and CEO of Angoka, was ecstatic.

“This award, as well as being among the finalists, means a lot. There is so much innovation happening in the UK, mainly driven by SMEs, and such a distinction shows that the government recognizes this,” he told Infosecurity.

Elliot noted that Ellis’s pitch impressed the jury. “He managed not only to present his smart city and autonomous vehicle security product, but he did so while walking around the high street in Oxford, thus immersing us in what he was trying to deliver.”

Nicole Mills, the exhibition director of Infosecurity Group, said it was important for Infosecurity Europe to shine a light on innovative cyber companies.

“The DSIT competition is an important part of the Infosecurity Europe event. It’s about bringing new and innovative companies to the fore and providing a stepping stone to showcase solutions and highlight the ongoing need for innovation in the industry. As threats continue to evolve, tech must keep pace and these finalists have demonstrated their capability to bring to market, new and advanced technologies built to tackle the cybersecurity challenges of the future,” she said.  

Angoka has joined an impressive list of past winners including, TryHackMe (2022) Capslock (2021), Hack the Box (2019), Kets Quantum Security (2018), Check Recipient (now trading as Tessian) (2017), Device Authority (2016) and Geolang (2015).  

The 2019 winners, Hack The Box, have grown exponentially following their success and have since announced a Series A investment round of $10.6m in 2021 and a further Series B funding announcement of $55m in Jan 2023 to expand its business after racking up 1.7 million users.  

All finalists were invited to exhibit on Infosecurity Europe’s Cyber Innovation Zone and to present their technologies at the Innovation Showcase during the show.