Fast-growing tech firm opens Cheltenham base

Leeds cyber security consultancy, Pentest People, has opened a new office in the Hub8 innovation space in Cheltenham’s Brewery Quarter.

The company expansion follows a record year of growth generating a 60 per cent revenue increase for the start-up, with its move into Gloucestershire further underlining the county’s own cyber credentials.

Pentest People’s cyber security experts test websites, applications and IT systems for weaknesses that could allow cyber criminals to steal information, damage IT systems, or hold data to ransom.

Andrew Mason, co-founder, said: ‘We now want to expand our operations and develop our people in a dedicated cyber security co-working space at the heart of the UK’s national centre for cyber security expertise, where knowledge can be shared and ideas can be cross-pollinated.

‘This will benefit our clients and growing team in Leeds, as well as allowing us to recruit graduates and talented apprentices in the Cheltenham area who have a strong aptitude for cyber security.’

The Yorkshire-headquartered business already has 70 members of staff, with 10 added this year.

Bruce Gregory, managing director of Hub8, the networking and office space focusing on businesses in the digital sector, said Gloucestershire’s vibrant eco-system of digital-related businesses, clustered around GCHQ, ‘continued to attract the most ambitious and innovative companies in the cyber security space’.

‘It’s no coincidence that Cheltenham boasts eleven times the national average of cyber security companies,’ said Mr Gregory.

A senior team leader will work in the new Cheltenham office alongside ‘computer science graduates and apprentices hired from the local area’, overseen by Gavin Watson, and Mr Mason.

Mr Mason also runs another start-up that was accepted onto the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Cyber Incubator in Cheltenham.

The team behind Pentest People also founded RandomStorm, which was acquired by Accumuli Secuity in 2014 in an £8.9 million deal before being acquired itself by listed IT security company NCC in 2015.

Read more: CyNam cyber business showcase at Cheltenham Science Festival

Read more: C11 Cyber Symposium at the University of Gloucestershire

By Andrew Merrell

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