LSEC has five main activities in supporting international expansion :
- LSEC Membership
- Industrial collaborations
- Global EPIC Soft Landing Program
- ECSO – European internationalization activities
- FIT – Flanders Invest & Trade activities – missions, tradeshows and support
Global EPIC Soft Landing Program
For companies planning to expand into Europe and for European companies planning to expand in the rest of the world.
The Global EPIC Soft Landing Program (SLP) has been running since October 2018 with currently 12 keystones taking part. The SLP aims to offer companies and entrepreneurs from the participating Global EPIC keystones a unique opportunity to ‘soft land’ for a trial period in the market of one of the other keystones. Ultimately, the programme was conceived to provide a low risk entry trial to companies and entrepreneurs entering a new international market, accessing the resources they need to more readily tap into commercial opportunities by connecting with new partners, recruiting talented employees, joining incubator facilities, closing new deals, and possibly setting up a permanent presence in the market. It also aims to be an effective tool for acquisition of foreign businesses to the Global EPIC regions, creating technological and economic impact within the keystones. A soft-landing increases the chance that a business will actually establish themselves in a region and start collaborating within the local keystone, leading to technological and economic impact.The Global Ecosystem of Ecosystems Partnership in Innovation and Cybersecurity (Global EPIC) has been founded in 2017 to enable the future securely through the development and sharing of new knowledge in the field of cyber security – leading to societal, economic and technological impact in a timely fashion. As one of its founding members, LSEC supports its activities also on a global basis and offers its local support via the Global Epic Soft Landing Program.
More about Global EPIC and our partners : globalepic.org
Soft Landing Program
An overview of the program offering.
LSEC offers Cybersecurity companies targeting to start and grow their business in Europe a soft landing platform. LSEC is a European cybersecurity cluster, based in Flanders – Belgium, a central European hub to easily reach all major cities in Europe. The cluster brings together expertise from supply and buy side, from research and policy. Active since 2002, LSEC has matured over 200 companies in the region over the last decades. As a spinoff of the KU Leuven university, it is closely linked to world class research in application security, crypto, embedded and industrial security and legal practice.
The Soft Landing program was developed in collaboration with international partners from Global EPIC.
If you are a cybersecurity company looking to grow your business in the European market, join the LSEC Digital Cybersecurity Catalyst where businesses, governments and knowledge institutions work together and share a common goal: more business activity and a secure world. The Global EPIC Soft Landing programme offers small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and especially those from the other Global EPIC keystones a unique opportunity to ‘soft land’ for a trial period in the Flemish market.
Flanders and Belgium are home to the European policy making with the European Commission, European Parliament and the European institutes in Brussels, and the global defence developments with NATO in Brussels. Flanders is home to various other global and European business headquarters for services and industrial companies such as AB Inbev, BASF, Dow Chemical, Audi, Siemens, Barco, Picanol, … Home to chemicals, food, advanced manufacturing, machine building, aerospace, transportation, textiles and electronics production and servicing.
Flanders and Belgium offers a strong business climate for cybersecurity businesses in Europe:
• A dedicated foreign investment team, offering confidential, free of charge services to international companies, incl. matchmaking services.
• A strong network of resellers and distributors
• 300 million consumers within 600 miles
• Located on mainland Europe, member of the EU and Eurozone, providing easy access to the European market
• Highly educated and multilingual workforce
• A competitive tax climate, including advanExpertiseeous tax incentives for R&D activities
• Excellent quality of life
• cybersecurity expertise, skills and resources through the industrial cybersecurity cluster LSEC
• part of top 10 cybersecurity purchasers in the Cybersecurity Market Industry, covering 80% of the European market
LSEC – Leaders In Security offering
LSEC is a network of businesses, governments and knowledge institutions that work together on innovative security solutions and knowledge development. In this network, cybersecurity issues are discussed and knowledge is shared on cyber security, critical infrastructure protection, and digital forensics. Jointly with 365+ other cyber security core experts, we reach out to over 15.000 cyber security professionals. On http://marketintelligence.leadersinsecurity.org a representation of all European clusters and their members is presented. LSEC establishes both national and international knowledge and trade partnerships, access to market, innovation, knowledge, capital and talent.
The Soft-Landing Programme for LSEC members includes :
• diligence on the business offering and market entrance, advisory on market potential and on legal constraints
• mentorship from LSEC and cybersecurity industry leaders
• introduced and arranged appointments with potential customers and business partners
• support in accessing financial resources, engaging strategic partners, and refining business models for market opportunities in the EU region
• meeting spaces with members and on premium locations
• advisory on market developments, resources, market entry, distribution channels, go to market, greater exposure, customer requirements, legal, immigration considerations and other practical issues.
LSEC intake an Action Program
LSEC was founded to further strengthen the Cybersecurity expertise of Flanders both in Belgium and around the world. This through supporting international security companies with market access and local expertise on cybersecurity and markets. Over 400 technology providers cooperate within this platform to support local businesses to establish their security business in Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg and the rest of Europe and to make use of its strong network and business environment; a secure gateway to Europe:
- 1 – 2 day intake : in depth discussions on offerings, market plans and objectives
- 2 – 5 day planned interactions with potential customers and local (integrator, distributor, research) partners
- 2 – 5 day planned site visits and office setup
- 2 – 6 month commercial support and visibility actions
- 6 – 12 month growth support
Interested?
For more information about the possibilities of soft-landing in the Belgium and how to join this programme, please contact the Global EPIC Partner Liaison at globalepic @ lsec.eu, or call +32 16 798585.
References
Some of the following companies were successfully introduced in the European market with the support of the LSEC activities : Guardsquare, Palo Alto Networks, Intrinsic-ID, Utimaco, Onepass and another 300-something companies over the last decade.