Immersive Labs races to cyber partnership with McLaren
As the Formula 1 season reaches its thrilling conclusion this weekend, one of the South West's standout tech firms will be keeping more than a close eye on proceedings.
Bristol cybersecurity training business Immersive Labs, which was this year named on Tech Nation's prestigious Future Fifty programme, has announced a multi-year partnership with McLaren Racing as an official partner supporting "cyber workforce optimization" of the McLaren F1 team.
While Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen battle it out for the title, the Immersive Labs team are likely to be supporting McLaren drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 12 December.
The McLaren deal will see the team using the Immersive Labs Platform, as well as carrying branding on both cars from the 2022 season. With valuable intellectual property and data to help protect, the McLaren F1 team will be using Immersive Labs to power a continual cycle of cyber capability development among its staff to keep pace with growing cybersecurity threats.
The partnership represents another strong development for Immersive Labs, which counts Airbnb and the Met Police among its clients and raised $75m in funding earlier this year.
James Hadley, CEO at Immersive Labs, told South West Tech Daily: “Partnering with a major global brand in a high-profile sport such as F1 is a big marker of validation of everything Immersive Labs is doing, and by association the support the company has received from the South West tech scene as a whole. It also speaks volumes about the quality of talent in the area. We were just a few people in a shipping container beside Temple Meads station when we started - we owe our growth in part to the ability of the area to embrace innovative young companies and propel them to scale.
"High profile brands and big organizations all over the world are targets for attack. To counteract this, they are becoming increasingly aware of the need to measure and develop cyber knowledge, skills and judgement across their workforce. We are always open to partnering with such entities to help them achieve this.”
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