SparkLabs Group Launches New Accelerator in Washington D.C. Focused on CyberSecurity and Blockchain Startups

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- SparkLabs Group (http://www.sparklabsgroup.com), a network of accelerators and venture capital funds, is launching a new global accelerator program focused on cybersecurity and blockchain related startups in Washington, D.C.

SparkLabs is the largest accelerator group in Asia with accelerators in Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Australia. They recently launched an energy-focused accelerator in Oman and now expanding into the U.S. for the first time.

SparkLabs Cybersecurity + Blockchain will be led by two seasoned entrepreneurs: Brian Park and Mike Bott. Brian Park is a three time entrepreneur and the former COO of Startup Grind, one of the largest entrepreneurial communities in the world. Mike Bott is the former Managing Director of The Brandery which was recognized as a top twenty accelerator under his leadership.

Mike Bott, Co-founder and Managing Partner at SparkLabs Cyber + Blockchain, said, "We're excited to bring the SparkLabs brand, connections and expertise to D.C. Immediately, within weeks of our agreement, the SparkLabs team brought in an incredible network of advisors and partners that would support this new accelerator and the startups that we will be investing in. As advisors, they brought on board Ray Ozzie, former Chief Software Architect at Microsoft and Creator of Lotus Notes; Charlie Lee, the Creator of Litecoin; Michael Crow, Chairman of In-Q-Tel and President of Arizona State University; Eric Ly, Co-founder of Linkedin; and Rich DeMillo, HP's first CTO and Executive Director at the Center for 21st Century Universities at Georgia Tech. If you are building the next big thing in cybersecurity or blockchain anywhere in the world, any founder should look at this exciting new accelerator we are launching."

In addition to the SparkLabs Cybersecurity + Blockchain advisory board, their Venture Partners include: Samson Mow, CSO at Blockstream and CEO of Pixelmatic; Andrew Lee, Co-founder of Handshake.org and Chairman at London Trust Media Holdings; Ryan Selkis, CEO of Messari; and Monique Morrow, Former CTO for New Frontiers Development at Cisco and President of the Humanized Internet.

Brian Park, Co-founder & Managing Partner, said, "We want to foster and grow a robust ecosystem in both cybersecurity and distributed ledger technologies. We believe these two verticals are synergetic by nature, but we will seek innovations beyond the overlap. Our team is looking for core innovations in security across all technology platforms to new innovations across the decentralized world. It's so early within this space that we are only seeing the Friendsters and MySpaces of the blockchain world. The next Facebooks and Twitters will be developed over the next several years."

"Initially, we spun out AOL's Fishbowl Labs and were going to launch a regional incubator, but now we are launching a global accelerator and bringing in world-class entrepreneurs, operators and subject matter experts to mentor and guide startups in our program. I'm excited to be working with the SparkLabs team. People such as Frank Meehan, who discovered DeepMind for his prior firm and led their first institutional round, and Rob DeMillo, a serial entrepreneur and seasoned CTO in Silicon Valley who managed startup teams to over 1,000 engineers while at VeriSign."

The SparkLabs Cyber+Blockchain program is based in Washington D.C., and the first class will start in March 2019, and applications will begin in January 2018. For more information, please visit http://www.sparklabscyber.com

About SparkLabs Group
Founded in 2013, SparkLabs Group (http://www.sparklabsgroup.com) includes SparkLabs accelerator network; SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com), a global seed stage fund; SparkLabs Ventures, an early-stage fund (Series A & B) in South Korea; and SparkChain Capital (http://www.sparkchaincapital.com), an early stage blockchain-focused fund.

SparkLabs' accelerator network consists of SparkLabs Korea (Seoul), SparkLabs China (Beijing and launching Shanghai, Chengdu and Shenzhen), SparkLabs IoT & Smart City (Songdo, South Korea), SparkLabs Cultiv8 (AgTech, FoodTech & Sustainability in Orange, Australia), SparkLabs Taipei, SparkLabs Energy (Muscat, Oman) and Ping An Cloud Accelerator, Powered by SparkLabs (Shenzhen, Hong Kong).

SOURCE SparkLabs