Stone & Chalk and AustCyber confirm strategic merger

Stone - Chalk and AustCyber are officially merging with the intention of accelerating growth for Australian technology companies.

The strategic integration 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.

Likewise, Stone - Chalk's emerging technology founders will have access to support and expertise from AustCyber.

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 Governments Industry Growth Centres.

The merged organisation will provide startups and scale-ups with access to domestic and international customers, talent, expertise and capital, the companies state.

This enables greater ability to accelerate growth and maturity for companies, which in turn creates new and skilled jobs for Australians and provides a highly attractive means for Australia to retain economic benefit, the companies state.

The organisation will also provide a voice to help shape the policy and regulatory landscape for critical and emerging technology products and services.

Stone - Chalk CEO Alex Scandurra says, "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.

"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.

The organisations have joined forces at a time of opportunity for Australian entrepreneurs, and unprecedented threats from both cyber criminals and state-sponsored threat actors against Australian public and private sector networks, the companies state.

AustCyber CEO Michelle Price says, "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.

"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.

NSW Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney, Stuart Ayres, says the merger of Stone - Chalk and AustCyber will help the state and the nation continue to embrace emerging and critical technologies.

He says, "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.