Australia’s industrial capability in critical and emerging technologies will receive a boost from the strategic integration of Stone & Chalk and AustCyber. The merger sees Stone & Chalk’s commercialisation services become available to Australian cyber security founders.
This includes investment support, customer and talent acquisition, corporate partnerships, ecosystem support and curated mentorship from commercial leaders.
The merger will involve these dynamics
Stone & Chalk’s emerging technology founders will have access to vital support and expertise from AustCyber to ensure they are secure by design before they write their very first line of code.
The merged organisation will provide startups and scale-ups with access to domestic and international customers, talent, expertise and capital.
This will accelerate growth and maturity for companies as they become the fastest growing employers in the economy. In turn, this creates new and highly-skilled jobs for Australians and provides a highly attractive means for Australia to retain economic benefit.
The organisation will also provide a powerful voice to better shape the policy and regulatory landscape for critical and emerging technology products and services.
AustCyber will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stone & Chalk, retaining its standalone brand, staffing structure and National Network of Cyber Security Innovation Nodes.
It will also continue to operate as one of the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Centres.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that Australia can no longer depend so heavily on imported technology which contains critical dependencies in supply chains,” said Stone & Chalk’s CEO Alex Scandurra.
“In making our two organisations one, we are combining the greatest concentration of cyber security industry expertise in the country with the most developed technology commercialisation infrastructure that Australia has ever built.”
“The integration of Stone & Chalk and AustCyber will enable our joint organisation to pursue a resilient and prosperous future not just for founders, enterprise and governments, but for all of Australia,” he said.
The benefits of this merger involve
The organisations have joined forces at a time of unprecedented opportunity for Australian entrepreneurs and unprecedented threats from both cyber criminals and state-sponsored threat actors against public and private sector networks.
“It’s in our nation’s interests to be investing in scalable, flexible and sophisticated ways and means to nurture and propel forward emerging tech industries,” said AustCyber’s CEO Michelle Price.
“AustCyber has demonstrated its ability to do this for cyber security and it’s critical we apply similar approaches to other emerging technologies.”
“I have long respected the capabilities of Stone & Chalk and know that joining forces will provide our existing ecosystems with the tools they need to evolve, develop and thrive.”
Stuart Ayres, NSW Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney, said the merger of Stone & Chalk and AustCyber will help the state and the nation continue to embrace emerging and critical technologies.
“The integration of these two organisations will see new jobs and investment for NSW, as well as the rest of the country, at a critical time when our economy is recovering from the pandemic.”
“Our government will continue to support the growth of emerging technology and ensure cyber security is built into these new platforms from the ground up. These will be the jobs of tomorrow.”
Stone & Chalk is Australia’s leading Impact Network™ for the emerging technology sectors.
Together with their resident founders, mentors, investors, and industry and government partners they have a proven track record in providing growth and commercialisation support for startups and scale-ups.
Residencies in their innovation hubs in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide provide access to customers, capital, talent, expertise & community collaboration opportunities.
