Sec-TA: Shielding Democratic Institutions and Critical Infrastructure via Automated Cyber Governance`
The Pitch
Sec-TA is a Ukrainian cybersecurity company focused on strengthening national cyber resilience. Its solutions support the digital transformation of cybersecurity operations across government institutions and critical infrastructure sectors. “We represent quite a strange and unusual IT company for our sector. We work solely with governments”, says Viktor Yakymovych, CEO and Co-founder of Sec-TA. Through its core automation platform, Complicate, the company strips away rigid bureaucracy and changes the operational mindset of public entities, making cybersecurity governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) accessible, structured, and scalable.
The Spark: From Silicon Valley Tables to the Governance Bridge
The concept for Sec-TA crystallized through a cross-continental realization. In 2023, Viktor lived in California for a year and a half. While navigating the arduous process of obtaining identifiers required to work with US government programs like USAID, he experienced firsthand the overwhelming complexity of international compliance, cyber controls, and export documentation.
Viktor recognized an immediate market gap: for high-growth Ukrainian defense, aerospace, or drone startups, navigating this compliance labyrinth to unlock Western contracts or donor funding would be a logistical nightmare. He envisioned Sec-TA as a vital strategic bridge. On one side, it prepares domestic innovations for strict international requirements; on the other, it assists foreign enterprises entering Ukraine to safely navigate and protect their operations in a high-risk, volatile environment.
The Reality: Funding Vital Crisis Solutions Out of Pocket
Operating a GovTech startup under active wartime pressure means throwing traditional business playbooks out the window. For Sec-TA, vital resilience projects simply cannot wait for revenue cycles or prolonged procurement rounds. When an infrastructure crisis emerges, the choice is binary: fund the solution yourself or let it go unbuilt.
This financial strain is compounded by how traditional international donor aid is structured. Donors often allocate massive funds to support Ukrainian digitalization but contract legacy corporations from their own native countries to deliver the work for free. This effectively boxes out local, battlefield-tested Ukrainian startups that offer highly competitive, localized expertise.
To shift this paradigm, Viktor advocates for healthier, collaborative ecosystems. Sec-TA recently won a major grant initiative backed by the Netherlands government and Ukraine’s National Security Coordination Center, which legally mandates that a Dutch and a Ukrainian firm execute the national cyber project as equal consortium partners – strengthening the local cyber tech ecosystem from within.
The Technology & National-Scale Resilience
Sec-TA’s expertise is recognized by the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP), the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, and regional authorities in Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, and other Ukrainian regions. Their solutions power two distinct, national-level resilience implementations:
The Complicate Platform: The company’s flagship GRC platform automates cybersecurity maturity assessments, maps compliance gaps, manages systemic risks, and generates audit-ready reports. It has been officially selected by the SSSCIP as the base software to monitor the execution of Ukraine’s National Cybersecurity Strategy.
The Power Rangers Project: Born during severe energy blackouts when coordination between regional administrations, emergency crews, and telecom operators was dangerously fragmented. Developed by Sec-TA in just two weeks, this coordination platform synchronized emergency response teams across 69 communities in the Kyiv region, successfully maintaining up to 90% mobile connectivity during critical grid failures.
Hard Facts & Traction
Geographic Expansion: Successfully scaled operations from a core US and Ukrainian focus into the broader European compliance market in 2026.
Global Democratic Validation: Selected to represent Ukraine at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, presenting a specialized cybersecurity electoral framework designed to protect democratic processes from state-sponsored hacker groups, deepfakes, and disinformation.
High-Level Advisory Alignment: The company’s electoral framework development was validated via strategic advisory engagement with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Secretary-General of NATO.
The VivaTech 2026 Roadmap: Current Needs
Marking their third strategic mission to France, Sec-TA approaches VivaTech 2026 to cement existing tier-one relationships within the European cyber ecosystem.
Citizen-Centric CustDev: Sec-TA is utilizing the massive scale of VivaTech to run customer development with European citizens and enterprises, analyzing if Western administrative friction points mirror the bureaucratic hurdles solved in Ukraine.
Consortium Partnerships: Actively seeking international clients and local European or French consulting firms. Sec-TA wants to serve as a “navigation star” for Western cybersecurity companies looking to enter, localize, and secure their tech within the Ukrainian market.
Where to Connect in Paris:
June 16: Meet Viktor in person at the premier official side event, Ukrainian Tech Night (The Village by Crédit Agricole Paris).
June 19: Watch Sec-TA deliver its high-stakes pitch live on the Pitch Studio Stage during the official EU for Innovation East Pitch Contest.
Main Forum: Engage with the leadership team directly at the official Ukrainian National Pavilion, J16.
The Horizon: Scaling the GRC Unicorn
Sec-TA is built on a global vision: use the ultimate high-pressure environment of Ukraine as a rigorous training ground, but solve global, systemic compliance automation. Over the next three to five years, the company aims to scale both Complicate and Power Rangers across the Baltic regions, the Nordics, and the UK, with the ultimate roadmap of becoming Ukraine’s first GRC and cybersecurity tech unicorn.
Listen to the Full Story
Explore how Sec-TA is automating cyber governance and engineering critical connectivity platforms under pressure. Listen to the complete conversation between host Natalia Petrova and Sec-TA CEO Viktor Yakymovych.
