POWERED BY FANARIn 2021, during a meeting at QSTP, Hamad Saleh Hadeed was handed a sketch on a napkin. It mapped the rough path of building a deep-tech product company in Qatar with considerations including uncertain funding cycles, unfamiliar investor expectations, and the challenge of local trust. For Hadeed, who was preparing to launch a cybersecurity startup, the message was simple: it would be hard, but worth it.
That year, Cytomate was founded with a bold approach—one that focused not just on defense, but on simulating cyberattacks to expose vulnerabilities before they could be exploited. Co-founded with CTO Dr. Muhammad Masoom Alam, the team built four interlinked products: from digital deception tools to OT system simulations, designed to move clients from monitoring to response, all within one ecosystem.
Early-stage support from QSTP, Qatar Development Bank, and later Qatar Research Development and Innovation Council helped turn prototypes into products. Today, Cytomate operates from QSTP, has a team of over 35, holds several U.S. patent filings, and has been accredited by Qatar’s National Cyber Security Agency, with its platform Breach+ certified under international standards.
Clients now include partners in Qatar, Turkey, South America, and Southeast Asia—many of whom found Cytomate without a single outbound sales pitch.
“Being at QSTP helped change perceptions,” Hadeed says. “Clients see we are not just another startup—we are part of a serious innovation ecosystem.”
Cytomate has already uncovered over two million vulnerabilities for clients and eliminated thousands of unique attack types. But for Hadeed, the mission goes deeper: to help Qatar shift from cybersecurity consumer to creator—and to prove that deep-tech can thrive right here at home.