CloudSEK launches incubation programme for cybersecurity startups

Bengaluru-based AI-powered cybersecurity and threat intelligence company CloudSEK has launched CloudSEK Launchpad, a 12-week incubation programme for early-stage cybersecurity startups.

The first cohort will have 10 companies, each eligible for up to $5,000 in AI model credits. Applications are open until November 20, 2026.

According to a statement, the programme is built around product development and commercial adoption rather than mentorship alone. Selected founders will get weekly guidance from CloudSEK’s leadership on research, product, enterprise sales, and fundraising, along with access to its threat intelligence resources and researchers. CloudSEK will also introduce founders to potential customers and channel partners across India, the Gulf Cooperation Council region, and the United States.

The programme ends with a demo day where founders will pitch to investors and prospective customers.

Pre-seed and seed-stage startups can apply; so can idea-stage founders with a strong team and a clearly defined security problem. Areas of interest include security for AI systems and agents, AI-native security operations, threat intelligence, identity and fraud prevention, and software supply-chain security.

Rahul Sasi, Founder and CEO of CloudSEK, said, “When we started CloudSEK, I wished someone had shown us the shortcuts, which customers to call first, which mistakes cost a year and who to trust.

"AI has made it significantly easier to build sophisticated technology, but building a successful cybersecurity company still requires access to real threat intelligence, trusted customers and the right industry network. With Launchpad, we want to share what we have learned and help promising founders get to their first ten paying customers."

Alongside Launchpad, CloudSEK has also introduced KeyVigil, a secure gateway that lets applications and autonomous AI agents access frontier AI models through a single endpoint. It manages master API keys centrally, masks sensitive data before it reaches a model, and flags and blocks prompt-injection and jailbreak attempts. It also logs model interactions and lets organisations set spending limits for teams, applications and agents. KeyVigil is available to enterprise customers, and Launchpad participants will receive access to it through their credits.