Gloucestershire secures more foreign cyber investment

By Nicky Godding

11 August 2023

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Flavio Shiga, CEO & Founder B10Sec with Phil Clement, Head of Inward Investment at GFirst LEP

Invest in Gloucestershire, the county’s inward investment programme, is celebrating another foreign direct investment with Portuguese Cybersecurity and Data Protection Service provider B10Sec choosing Gloucestershire as its new global HQ.

The company’s founder and CEO, Flavio Shiga, recently registered the business in Cheltenham and plans to relocate the business from Portugal later this year.

B10Sec Cybersecurity and Data Protection Services Ltd specialises in Data Protection Services and Cyber Security, delivering projects to more than ten countries. One of their specialisms and commercial solutions is the development of the IO Leak Data Monitor, a Software-as-a-Service solution that proactively identifies data leaks.

The Invest in Gloucestershire team has been supporting B10Sec over the last ten months, having first been approached via the Department of Business and Trade on the back of the launch of the ‘Cyber in Gloucestershire’ High Potential Opportunity (HPO) initiative in September 2022.

The team hosted Flavio and his partner and wife Jessica in December 2022 where they were introduced to the region and learnt of the many opportunities available for establishing a business in the county. The company have since registered their intended global HQ in Gloucestershire and are currently in the Gloucestershire actively seeking funding in the range of £500K to £1M. Their target customer base includes SMEs as well as large corporations across various industry segments.

B10Sec have been endorsed by the Department of Business and Trade who awarded them a Global Enterprise Award in March and were also accepted onto the Global Entrepreneur Programme who are supporting with B10 Sec’s visa and onboarding processes.

Phil Clement, Head of Inward Investment at GFirst LEP, said: "We are pleased to announce the establishment of another new company into the growing Gloucestershire cyber cluster, the largest outside of London. Working with UK Government and bringing on board a range of partners meant we could offer Flavio and Jessica a strong network to help B10 Sec establish their global HQ."

Flavio Shiga, CEO & Founder B10Sec, added: "We are delighted to be establishing our global HQ in Cheltenham. Cybersecurity is more than protecting systems; it's about safeguarding lives, building trust and fostering innovation. From our new home in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, we are keen to grow our new UK business and be an active member of the local cyber community, from whom we have received such a warm welcome."

Mike Jackson, Dealmaker, Global Entrepreneur Programme said ‘’B10Sec is just the kind of deep tech company the Department for Business and Trade’s Global Entrepreneur program is designed to support and I’m delighted Flavio has chosen my home patch of the South West and the Cheltenham Cyber cluster in particular, to grow his business.”

B10Sec will be relocating to Cheltenham later in the year but will be available to talk to interested parties in the interim.

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.