Four finalists have been selected for the inaugural edition at SecTor 2025, and the winner will be invited to compete in the Global Startup Spotlight Competition during Black Hat USA 2026
The Black Hat Startup Spotlight Competition, a pitch competition series for cybersecurity startup companies to present their products and solutions in front of a live audience at Black Hat, has officially launched at SecTor. As part of the Black Hat global cybersecurity events portfolio, SecTor provides an unmatched opportunity for the Canadian cybersecurity community to convene each year.
This expansion marks a significant milestone for the competition, extending its influential platform to Canada's vibrant cybersecurity ecosystem. The competition's inaugural SecTor appearance follows an intensive selection process in which startup companies from across the globe submitted their applications to highlight their organizations' technical innovation, market potential, and strategic vision. After the judges carefully assessed each application, four promising startups have now been selected as the competition's finalists.
Finalists include:
Legion Security: Legion Security is a browser-native AI SOC (Artificial Intelligence Security Operations Center) analyst that learns what your analysts do and scales them. It trains within your organization, observing your team's investigations, learns their patterns, and helps improve them. Then, it automates them at your own pace, at any scale, and without requiring any integrations or APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).
Ely Abramovitch, CEO & Co-Founder, Legion Security, shared, "Legion is essentially an AI SOC companion that learns and scales your processes. We begin by installing a browser extension on the analyst's browser and observing how they investigate using vision models. We map out those processes and automate them. We can run them from the browser itself or scale investigations behind the scenes autonomously."
Nexodata Inc: Nexodata is a quantum-resistant cryptographic DLP (Data Loss Prevention) software that serves as the last line of defence against ransomware for your existing IT infrastructure.
Francis Pun, Co-Founder and CEO, Nexodata Inc., shared, "We're honoured to be selected as one of the four finalists in this year's [Startup Spotlight Competition] and keen to share our mission to protect enterprises when traditional defenses fail. Bringing our data science expertise in network coding, Nexodata's cryptographic DLP technology ensures and future-proofs valuable data archives to remain unreadable even when systems are compromised, serving as the critical last line of defense against ransomware attacks. We're excited to demonstrate to Black Hat's cybersecurity professionals how our solution transforms catastrophic breaches into manageable incidents, and wish all other finalists the best in their pitches as well."
Selfhack AI: At Selfhack AI, we help companies hack themselves before attackers do. Our autonomous platform delivers fast, reliable security reports with no false-positives that empower businesses to stay ahead of threats. Traditional penetration testing is often slow, costly, and complex — Selfhack AI changes that by making pentesting fast, scalable from a single asset to global operations, autonomous, and always accessible, saving both time and resources.
ShadowHQ: ShadowHQ is an award-winning cyber incident response and crisis management platform designed to help organizations navigate any crisis with confidence. With its secure, out-of-band virtual bunker, ShadowHQ provides businesses with the tools they need to plan, coordinate, and execute a seamless cyber crisis response. From real-time communication to incident tracking and automated playbook execution, ShadowHQ ensures teams are visible, in control, and ready to respond to any cyber crisis.
Nick Scozzaro, Founder & CEO, ShadowHQ shared, "Being named a finalist in the Startup Spotlight is truly an honour for everyone at ShadowHQ. It's a powerful validation of our mission to protect organizations when their primary systems are compromised—and to give those teams the tools and confidence to respond immediately, even when the worst happens. I'm excited to bring ShadowHQ to the SecTor stage, show how our out of band virtual bunker works, and help organizations see how they can stay ahead of the next crisis."
Image features the finalists from the Startup Spotlight Competition during Black Hat USA 2025.
Each finalist will receive one turnkey startup booth at SecTor 2025, one 20-minute speaking session, and one 30-minute call with an Omdia cybersecurity analyst. Finalists will also exhibit their companies' cutting-edge cybersecurity products and solutions on October 1 and October 2 in the Business Hall, and pitch their organizations' solutions to the judges on October 1 at 3:30 PM in the Keynote Hall (Hall F, Level 800) of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC).
After all finalists have presented, the competition winner will be announced on-site, and then awarded the invitation to advance to Black Hat USA 2026, where they will represent SecTor in the Global Startup Spotlight Competition–Black Hat's newly launched global initiative responding to the growing need for increased investment in emerging technologies around the world.
More information on this competition at SecTor can be found HERE.
For registration and additional information on SecTor 2025, taking place September 30 to October 2 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC), please visit www.blackhat.com/sector/2025/registration.html.
Top Sponsors and Partners of SecTor 2025 include:
About SecTor
Since 2007, SecTor, Canada's largest cybersecurity conference, has brought relevant, engaging, and reputable content for the benefit of the Canadian cybersecurity community. As one of the global events in Black Hat's portfolio, SecTor provides an unmatched opportunity for security professionals to connect with their peers and learn from their mentors. For more information on SecTor, please visit www.blackhat.com/sector.
About Black Hat
Black Hat is the cybersecurity industry's most established and in-depth security event series. Founded in 1997, these annual, multi-day events provide attendees with the latest in cybersecurity research, development, and trends. Driven by the needs of the community, Black Hat events showcase content directly from the community through Briefings presentations, Trainings courses, Summits, and more. As the event series where all career levels and academic disciplines convene to collaborate, network, and discuss the cybersecurity topics that matter most to them, attendees can find Black Hat events in the United States, Canada, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.blackhat.com.