Cybersecurity accelerator CyRise, which has programs in Sydney and Melbourne, will close next month after five years.

The program has supported 39 startups in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India and the US since its launch in 2017, with the support of UK IT services and consultancy NTT and Deakin University.

The program was a pioneer in supporting cybersecurity startups long before the issue came to the attention of Australian business and government in the wake of a series of major hacks of leading companies and institutions ranging from Service NSW to Medibank , Optus, Canva, ANU and Latitude.

In a statement posted on Medium this weekthe organization said that NTT and Deakin have decided to close the CyRise initiative as of May 19.

The last five startups in the program – flag, InfoSecAssure, To nullify, Onqlave And 6 pillars – will pitch at the final accelerator demo day in Sydney on May 9. Free entrance tickets are available here.

CyRise is a 3-month accelerator program for founders of cybersecurity startups, along with week-long boot camps, community events, and ongoing founder support. 55% of the companies participating in the program have gone on to raise additional funding worth $44 million and the companies involved in seven cohorts are now worth a combined value $210 million.

They have also created 150 jobs and achieved an overall return of 3.55x and an IRR of 50%, demonstrating that Australian cybersecurity startups are great investments.

The program settled in Sydney last year at Tech Central with support from Invest NSW and Atlassian. Former NSW minister Alister Henskens announced last August that CyRise had been chosen to run the NSW government’s $1 million Cyber ​​Security Accelerator program. The program offered three-day boot camps, a 14-week accelerator program for startups, and a new scale-up program for companies scaling later.

Four of the five startups selected for the NSW program are based in the state. When that final – and ultimately final – cohort was announced in February, there was no indication that Deakin had any doubts about the accelerator program.

So said Virginie Hoareau, Executive Director at Deakin Research and a board member of CyRise at the time “Deakin’s partnership with CyRise will enable Deakin to apply its commitment to excellence in cybersecurity research and generate real economic growth.”

Deakin University has been contacted for comment. We’ll update this story if they respond.

CyRise CEO Scott Handsaker thanked everyone for their support of CyRise.

“It has been a real pleasure to work with the Australian cybersecurity community. You have supported us every step of the way by generously sharing your expertise and networks and by taking the opportunity to work with early stage startups,” he said.

“CyRise has made an incredibly important contribution to the future of Australia’s cybersecurity ecosystem through our programs for founders and leaders alike. We are proud of our achievements since launch in 2017.”