Cyber Essentials First Step Fund: partner overview
The UK Government is paying 75% of the Cyber Essentials assessment fee for eligible UK SMEs through the First Step Fund, run by IASME. Your customer claims the funding themselves on IASME's First Step site, using your unique CyberSmart link, and pays the remaining 25%.
On top of the funding, customers who buy a CyberSmart Core or Complete package get the full cost of the Cyber Essentials component taken off their year-one price: £675 off RRP (£575 off your partner price).
The fund totals £2.4m, enough for around 6,000 businesses.
Key deadlines
Customers must register and buy their assessment by 31 March 2027, or earlier if the money runs out.
Customers then have six months from when their IASME First Step payment is completed to achieve certification.
Why claim through CyberSmart?
The funding is identical on both routes and the customer pays the same 25% contribution. What changes is who assesses your customer and the role you play.
Direct to IASME — customers who apply directly to IASME enter a central pool and are assigned to any one of roughly 400 certification bodies.
Your CyberSmart link — customers are allocated to CyberSmart and added to your partner account. They're certified by the UK's largest Cyber Essentials certification body*, with unlimited support and resubmissions at no extra cost. You can wrap your own services around the certification and have a clear path to ongoing compliance.
Always send your unique link and ask customers to use it rather than searching for the scheme online. If they sign up without it, their account won't be tied to CyberSmart or to you.
How it works at a glance
Get your partner link at cyber-essentials-funding.cybersmart.co.uk.
Choose how to share it: I'll share a link with my customers or I'll provide my customer list.
Your customer claims the funding on IASME's First Step site, pays their 25% and accepts the declaration.
Place your order with CyberSmart for Core or Complete, or let us know if they only want Cyber Essentials.
Choose when to start: wait for the CyberSmart platform (recommended), or start now in IASME's Pervade platform if they need certification soon.
Each step is covered in more detail in the related First Step Fund articles: eligibility and pricing, creating your funding link, the customer's journey on IASME First Step, choosing when to start, and placing your order.
*Measured by assessments completed: 30,467 Cyber Essentials assessments completed as of 1 November 2026, comprising 23,151 Cyber Essentials and 7,316 Cyber Essentials Plus assessments.
Need help?
If you have any questions about the First Step Fund, get in touch with our support team using the chat on this page.