AU Cyber Founders Community
Get engaged
Aussie Cyber Security Start-Ups
Early-stage cybersecurity startups are solving tomorrow's problems with today's constraints, and a CISO's operational scar tissue is exactly what keeps them honest. Getting involved — as an advisor, design partner, or angel — means shaping a product's direction while it's still cheap to change, gaining early access to approaches before they become mainstream (or before a competitor locks in the relationship), and building a reputation as someone who backs the ecosystem rather than just buys from it. In return, the founders get something most vendors never offer: unfiltered feedback from someone who'll actually have to run the thing.
Add companies to your shortlist and leave your details. We're independent — no fee, equity or commission, and we're not a vendor.
Ecosystem Map
69 / 74 mapped
Where Australian cyber start-ups are headquartered.
Latest from the ecosystem
Why CISOs get involved
Shape the roadmap while it's still cheap to change
Early-stage founders build fast and listen closely. The gaps and questions you raise as an advisor or design partner get folded into the product in weeks, not the multi-year release cycles of established vendors.
Fill real gaps without ripping out your stack
Best-of-breed, defence-in-depth still beats betting everything on one or two large platforms. Startups solve narrow, specific problems well — complementing what you already run, not replacing it.
See tomorrow's threats before they're mainstream
Startups are usually first to build for what's next — AI-driven attacks, deepfakes, quantum-readiness. Getting involved early means evaluating these approaches before your peers do, and before adversaries exploit the gap.
Build a name in the ecosystem
Advisors and design partners are remembered when a startup they backed early goes on to matter — and many of these startups go global, so the domain expertise and thought leadership you bring as an early advisor can carry your reputation well beyond Australia.
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If you choose to invest, there's a genuine tax upside
Where a startup qualifies as an Early Stage Innovation Company, investors can access a 20% non-refundable tax offset (capped at $200k for sophisticated investors, or total investment of $50k for retail investors) and a CGT exemption on gains from shares held 1–10 years.
This is separate from advising or shortlisting — it only applies if you invest directly. Not tax advice; check ESIC eligibility and speak with your accountant.
How to get involved?
Browse the ecosystem
Filter by NIST CSF domain, growth stage, team size, or location to find startups solving problems in your environment.
Shortlist what's relevant
Add the companies you'd want to advise, pilot, or invest in.
Leave your details
A short form, nothing more. No spam, no vendor calls.
The founder reaches out directly
Your details go straight to the startups you've shortlisted, so you hear from the people building the product, not a middleman.
Vetted Cyber Security Start-ups
Every listing is reviewed by practitioner volunteers before it's published — this isn't an open directory. Shortlisted startups will see your interest and can reach out directly.
74 start-ups shown
Filters narrow the results — this picks how to group what’s left.
Bubble area scales with the number of start-ups. Select one to drill in.
About
AU Cyber Founders Community exists to close the distance between the people building Australia's next generation of cybersecurity products and the people who'll actually have to run them. We're not a marketplace and we're not a lead-gen funnel for vendors — this is a curated, practitioner-led bridge between early-stage founders and the CISOs, security architects, and technical leads whose feedback can actually shape a product before it hardens into its final form.
The community is run by a group of Australian security practitioners and founders who've built and led security teams across enterprise and government, and who wanted a better way to connect operators with the startups solving the problems they see every day. Every startup listed here is curated and reviewed by the organizers before it goes on the board — this isn't an open directory anyone can list themselves into.