Goldilock expands West Midlands hub

Above: (left to right) Stephen Kines and Tony Hasek, co-Founders of Goldilock.
Courtsy Goldilock

The company behind network isolation tool, FireBreak, has expanded its manufacturing and testing facilities in the University of Wolverhampton Science Park to help deliver on increasing numbers of large orders coming in from its growing global customer base.  

Goldilock is a UK-based cyber security scaleup which has developed a unique network isolation and segmentation device that ringfences networks away from the internet to make them inaccessible to hackers. Over the past year, FireBreak has won Goldilock a place on multiple accelerators including the prestigious NATO DIANA programme and the MoD’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA).

FireBreak’s applications for critical networks and sensitive data mean the product is being used by organisations responsible for critical national infrastructure (CNI) globally including the Ukrainian Cyber Command, as well as in sectors such as financial services, healthcare and manufacturing. Goldilock fuelled its growth in 2024 through expanding its channel partner programme and now collaborates with over 50 partners across 18 countries in Europe, while the company’s headcount in the West Midlands hub has doubled over the course of the year to support a rapidly expanding customer base.

The West Midlands region, with its burgeoning community of forward-thinking businesses and access to a talented pool of cybersecurity professionals, provides an ideal foundation for Goldilock’s continued success. FireBreak’s applications for defence and deployment by large UK CNI companies means Goldilock’s facilities in the West Midlands have been officially vetted by both NATO and UK security regulators. Now, as Goldilock scales up and moves from R&D and prototyping to large-scale manufacturing to meet the global demand for FireBreak, it has chosen to re-invest in the West Midlands by expanding its facilities and continuing to conduct all manufacturing in its new dedicated space in the University of Wolverhampton Science Park.
 
Anticipating continued growth over the next few years, Goldilock expects to increase the team to 32 employees by the end of 2025 and forecasts that it will be able to create 44 new jobs in the area between now and the end of 2027, the majority of which will be engineers to help service customer orders for FireBreak as they continue to grow in size and number.

Stephen Kines, co-Founder and COO of Goldilock, said: “We are thrilled to expand our capability to meet the large-scale orders we have coming in and in doing so further strengthen our ties with the tech community in the West Midlands.

“With sophisticated ransomware and AI-powered attacks on a continuous rise, paired with the increasing interconnectedness of systems, Goldilock’s technology provides a critical, foundational layer of defence. The West Midlands offers us an invaluable hub for innovation, providing access to a diverse pool of talented tech professionals and a supportive business environment from which we can continue to grow the business and get our critical product to where it’s needed most, as quickly as possible."

Sharon Thompson, Deputy Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “We warmly welcome Goldilock’s commitment to growing its pioneering cyber security business in the West Midlands. Goldilock is helping to strengthen our manufacturing supply chain and create new jobs for local people.”

City of Wolverhampton Council Leader, Councillor Stephen Simkins, said: “Goldilock’s expansion is a testament to the City of Wolverhampton’s growing appeal as a destination of choice for ambitious tech firms, with an extensive R&D network, deep pool of specialist talent and proximity to the region’s end-to-end manufacturing supply chain.

“We’re very proud that Goldilock chose to call the University of Wolverhampton Science Park home and look forward to supporting their continued growth, while encouraging many more tech firms to make the most of the valuable opportunity presented by our Green Innovation Corridor.”