Spinverse helps to secure EU funding for global cybersecurity solutions

SSH Communications Security (SSH) has been delivering cybersecurity solutions to the global markets for almost 25 years. When they decided to apply for the highly competitive EU funding for their R&D operations, their consulting company of choice was Spinverse.

See what Kaisa Olkkonen, CEO of SSH, says about working with Spinverse:

SSH is a company heavily relying on R&D, and this means that a considerable amount of funding is needed to be able to cover all those R&D costs. SSH had not applied for EU funding before but knew very well that cybersecurity is a key area in the EU. The project for which SSH seeked for funding is related to new generation Privileged Access Management (PAM). PrivX is a new generation solution from SSH that will bring PAM to the cloud era, enabling companies to accelerate their cloud transformation by providing credential-less, rolebased and on-demand access to cloud and hybrid resources. SSH reached out to Spinverse to get support in their application process for Horizon 2020 SME Phase 2 funding, and for the subsequent reporting back to the EU.

Success! Application process with the desired result

SSH and Spinverse started the process by identifying the most suitable project for the application, after which SSH started drafting the application with support from Spinverse.  At the pitching time, Spinverse experts were helping SSH to pitch to the EU panel of experts regarding their application. The story continues with SSH getting the much sought-after funding so eventually Spinverse will also be helping SSH in reporting back to the EU on how the money has been used. SSH received an EU funding of just over € 2M for development, marketing, and go-to-market activities of the PrivX product over the next 24 months.

Competitive application process

The process for granting EU funding is a highly competitive and challenging process and doing it for the first time has its pitfalls. Less than 5% of the applications get approved and that is why some consultancy is often welcomed. “The biggest concern when you work with consultants is that are they too positive? Are they giving a realistic picture of your chances of getting that funding?” questions Kaisa Olkkonen, the CEO of SSH.  She feels that if a consultant gives an impression that getting funding is just a breeze, it is advisable to get a little bit suspicious.

Kaisa continues: “Spinverse gave us a very clear picture from the very beginning of how hard it is.” Spinverse described very openly what kind of projects will not succeed and also what kind of projects may succeed. This helped SSH to work hard on their application and pay attention to the right things, with a successful end result.

“Our process ended up very well so I would be happy to recommend other companies that are applying for EU money for the first time to get support from Spinverse — we have been naturally very happy with their support.”