What THE CAPABLE HUB does

The Capable Hub is a non-profit engineering organization registered in England and Wales (company number 16873866) whose exclusive mission is to improve the availability, quality, and upstream alignment of open-source CHERI (Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions) software. CHERI is an architectural extension that provides hardware-enforced memory safety through capability-based pointers enforcing bounds and permissions at the instruction level. The organization maintains and develops CHERI-enabled forks of more than 20 foundational open-source projects spanning kernels (Linux, CheriBSD, seL4), RTOSes (Zephyr, CHERIoT-RTOS), toolchains (LLVM, GCC, GDB), emulators (QEMU), C libraries (glibc, musl), bootloaders (OpenSBI, U-Boot), distributions (Yocto meta-morello and meta-cheri), and languages (Rust, wolfSSL), targeting ARM Morello, RISC-V RVY, and CHERIoT architectures. Its registered office is at Merlin House, Priory Drive, Langstone, Newport, Wales, NP18 2HJ, UK.

The organization operates shared infrastructure including a UK-based physical board farm hosting ARM Morello and RISC-V CHERI development boards, AWS-backed CI runners delivered as ephemeral GitHub Actions runners via a GitHub App for hardware-in-loop testing, Mailman 3 mailing lists (including cheri-discuss at lists.thecapablehub.org), long-term artifact storage, and Docker container images published as tch-containers. These services are provided at no cost to public repositories relating to CHERI software. The Capable Hub functions as the coordination layer for the CHERI open-source ecosystem, linking academic institutions (University of Cambridge, SRI International, University of Kent, University of Birmingham), semiconductor companies (Codasip, ARM, SCI Semiconductor), embedded Linux firms (BayLibre, The Good Penguin), government funders (UKRI / Innovate UK), and original CHERIoT developers (Microsoft). Its Board of Directors includes Andrew Murray (Founder/Director, also Founder of The Good Penguin), Carl Shaw (Codasip Senior Safety and Security Manager), Kevin Hilman (BayLibre CTO and Co-Founder), Pawel Zalewski (Software Engineer at The Good Penguin), with Innovate UK holding an observer seat.

The Capable Hub is funded primarily through grants and institutional backing rather than commercial revenue. UKRI / Innovate UK has committed a £21 million investment to back CHERI-enabled hardware and the surrounding software ecosystem, including direct funding to the University of Birmingham for CHERI-Zephyr development and to SCI Semiconductor for CHERIoT Rust work. As a non-profit private company limited by guarantee, the organization does not monetize its software or infrastructure commercially; its services are provided free of charge to advance the open-source CHERI ecosystem and align forks toward upstream acceptance. The CHERI Blossoms 2026 conference drew more than twice the audience of the prior year, indicating a growing ecosystem around the technology.

Name

THE CAPABLE HUB

Legal name

The Capable Hub

Website

https://www.thecapablehub.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2025

Operating status

Operating

Short description

The Capable Hub is a UK-registered non-profit engineering organization that develops and maintains open-source CHERI memory-safety software, providing shared board farm, CI infrastructure, and ecosystem coordination for academic, semiconductor, and embedded Linux contributors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Open-source CHERI software engineering

NAICS

Computer Facilities Management Services (541513), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Managed DevOps / Platform Operations (Run & Operate) (BPAEAKAO)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cloud-Native Enablement (Containers, Kubernetes, Service Mesh) (BPAEAKAE), Container Platforms & Orchestration (Kubernetes) (HDABADAF)

Keywords

• Open-source CHERI software
• Memory safety engineering
• Hardware-in-loop testing
• Capability-based security
• Open-source CI infrastructure

Headquarters

HQ city

Newport

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Non-profit engineering organization: The Capable Hub is a non-profit engineering organization registered in England and Wales as a private company limited by guarantee. It does not appear to generate commercial revenue from product sales. Operations are funded through grants, institutional backing, and community contributions. The organization focuses on improving open-source CHERI software availability, quality, and upstream alignment rather than commercial product monetization.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Capable Hub is a non-profit engineering organisation that maintains and improves open-source CHERI (Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions) software for ARM Morello, RISC-V RVY, and CHERIoT architectures. It operates shared infrastructure — including a remote hardware board farm, AWS-backed CI for GitHub Actions, mailing lists, and artifact storage — and maintains CHERI-enabled forks of foundational open-source projects (kernels, RTOSes, toolchains, libraries, bootloaders).

Product overview

The Capable Hub is a non-profit engineering organization focused exclusively on improving the availability, quality, and upstream alignment of open-source CHERI software. Their portfolio consists of infrastructure services (board farm for remote hardware access, AWS-backed CI, mailing lists, artifact storage) and collaborative software projects spanning distributions (Yocto for RISC-V and Morello), operating systems (CheriBSD, CHERI Linux, CHERI-seL4), RTOS (CHERIoT-RTOS, CheriZephyr), programming languages (CHERI Rust), toolchains (LLVM, gcc, GDB), emulators (QEMU), boot loaders (OpenSBI, U-Boot), C libraries (glibc, musl), and container images (tch-containers). All projects target CHERI architectures (ARM Morello, RISC-V RVY, CHERIoT) to provide hardware-enforced memory safety and compartmentalization.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Board Farm Remote interactive access to physical CHERI development hardware (ARM Morello boards and RISC-V CHERI boards) via GitHub Actions for hardware-in-loop testing and CI validation. Available to public CHERI software repositories at no cost.
• AWS Backed CI AWS-backed continuous integration infrastructure delivered as ephemeral GitHub Actions runners with access to physical hardware in the board farm, enabling regular validation of CHERI software on silicon.
• Mailing Lists (Mailman 3) Asynchronous communication infrastructure using Mailman 3 for CHERI ecosystem projects, including the cheri-discuss general-purpose list hosted at lists.thecapablehub.org.
• Artifact Storage Long-term storage service for build artifacts and software distributions produced by CHERI software projects.
• Yocto for RISC-V (meta-cheri) Board Support Package (BSP) and distro layer for CHERI Linux on Yocto targeting the RISC-V RVY architecture.
• Yocto for Morello (meta-morello) BSP Yocto layer for the ARM Morello board supporting both A64 (glibc/GCC) and C64 (musl/LLVM) sysroots.
• CheriBSD CHERI fork of FreeBSD implementing memory protection and software compartmentalization for Morello and CHERI-RISC-V platforms.
• CHERI Rust CHERI-enabled Rust compiler targeting the CHERIoT ISA and Morello platforms, complementing Rust's compile-time safety with hardware-level runtime guarantees.
• CHERI Linux CHERI-enabled Linux kernel replacing traditional pointers with hardware-enforced capabilities for fine-grained memory safety and compartmentalization.
• CHERI-seL4 CHERI-enabled fork of the seL4 microkernel using the Microkit abstraction layer for RISC-V and Morello platforms.
• CHERIoT-RTOS Real-time operating system for the CHERIoT platform designed for resource-constrained IoT devices, using CHERI for object-granularity protection without requiring an MMU.
• CheriZephyr CHERI fork of the Zephyr RTOS for the RISC-V RVY architecture, providing memory-safe RTOS capabilities for embedded systems.
• glibc (CHERI) CHERI-enabled fork of the GNU C Library for the Morello platform.
• musl libc (CHERI) CHERI-enabled fork of musl libc for RISC-V RVY and Morello platforms.
• OpenSBI (CHERI) CHERI-enabled fork of the OpenSBI RISC-V SBI specification implementation.
• U-Boot (CHERI) CHERI-enabled fork of Das U-Boot bootloader for RISC-V RVY.
• gcc (CHERI) CHERI-enabled fork of the GCC compiler for the Morello platform enabling legacy applications to utilize hardware capabilities.
• LLVM (CHERI) CHERI-enabled LLVM toolchain (clang, lld) for Morello, RISC-V, and CHERIoT architectures.
• GDB (CHERI) CHERI-enabled GNU Debugger for RISC-V ISAv9 and Morello platforms.
• QEMU (CHERI) CHERI-enabled fork of the QEMU emulator supporting RISC-V and ARM Morello CHERI architectures for system testing and software development.
• tch-containers Docker container images for CHERI tools and projects including the seL4 SDK, Morello-Yocto build container, Zephyr SDK, and LLVM toolchain.

Quantifiable outcome

• More than twice the audience at CHERI Blossoms 2026 compared to the previous year — evidence of a rapidly growing CHERI ecosystem.
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• The Good PenguincoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Good Penguin is an embedded Linux services company. Its founder, Andrew Murray, is Director and founder of The Capable Hub. The Good Penguin maintains key Yocto layers including meta-morello (forked from ARM's Morello gitlab into The-Capable-Hub GitHub), meta-morello-distro (cherified PostgreSQL and Zabbix), and contributes to CHERI ecosystem software repositories.
• BayLibrecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBayLibre is an embedded Linux consulting firm. Its CTO and Co-Founder Kevin Hilman serves on The Capable Hub's Board of Directors. BayLibre contributes to the CHERI ecosystem including Yocto and kernel development.
• CodasipcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCodasip develops RISC-V CHERI hardware and has been a major contributor to CHERI Alliance repositories including LLVM, QEMU, U-Boot, OpenSBI, Linux kernel, musl libc, and GDB for the RISC-V RVY (CHERI-RISC-V Draft Standard 0.9.3) architecture. Codasip's work has open-sourced critical CHERI Linux support. Senior Safety and Security Manager Carl Shaw serves on The Capable Hub's Board of Directors.
• CHERI AlliancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe CHERI Alliance is the primary industry consortium coordinating CHERI software development. The Capable Hub works within the CHERI Alliance ecosystem, hosting documentation and infrastructure for CHERI Alliance projects including Linux, LLVM, QEMU, GDB, seL4, CheriZephyr, and Yocto layers. The Capable Hub's software map is an open collaborative effort hosted on GitHub.
• University of CambridgecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity of Cambridge is the original developer of CHERI architecture (jointly with SRI International). Cambridge hosts the CHERI CPU Slack community, maintains the CTSRD-CHERI repositories (llvm-project, qemu, gdb, cheribuild) supporting the ISAv9 reference specification, and co-develops CheriBSD. Cambridge's research architecture forms the foundation of the CHERI ecosystem.
• SRI InternationalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSRI International co-developed CHERI architecture with University of Cambridge and co-maintains CheriBSD. SRI leads the overall CheriBSD project alongside Brooks Davis from Capabilities Limited. SRI's work on linker-based compartmentalization in CheriBSD is funded by DARPA.
• University of BirminghamminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity of Birmingham received funding from UKRI as part of the £21M CHERI ecosystem investment to continue developing CHERI support in the Zephyr RTOS. This work produced the CHERI-Zephyr v0.1.0 through v0.3.0 releases.
• University of KentminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity of Kent developed the initial Rust support for ARM Morello platform in 2023, funded by DSbD (Digital Security by Design) / UKRI. Published at github.com/kent-weak-memory/rust, based on Rust 1.72.1. Now a subcontractor on SCI Semiconductor's 2025 UKRI-funded follow-on project.
• SCI SemiconductorminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSCI Semiconductor received 2025 UK Innovate UK and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology funding to bring Rust support to the CHERIoT platform. Work is done in collaboration with previous project owners from University of Kent. Goal is to add CHERIoT-specific extensions while remaining compatible with any CHERI platform.
• MicrosoftminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMicrosoft initially developed the CHERIoT project and has since made it open-source to improve collaboration with the wider community. Microsoft's research into memory safety (finding 70% of CVEs from memory safety issues) motivates CHERIoT development.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Yocto Project: Open-source collaboration project producing the Yocto build system and BSP layers that The Capable Hub actively builds on (meta-cheri, meta-morello). Comparable as an open-source consortium stewarding shared embedded-Linux build infrastructure with multi-vendor governance.
• FreeBSD Foundation: Non-profit supporting FreeBSD, on which CheriBSD (maintained by The Capable Hub and SRI) is based. Overlapping governance model for sustaining BSD-derived open-source projects and channeling grants to upstream contributors.
• Linaro: Non-profit engineering organization that consolidates and upstream-aligns open-source software (Linux kernel, toolchains, hypervisors) for ARM and related architectures. Closely comparable mission: shared engineering resources for fragmented silicon ecosystems, with industry consortia and board representation. Like The Capable Hub, it provides CI/build infrastructure and maintains forks targeting ARM Morello-era hardware.
• Zephyr Project: Linux Foundation-hosted open-source RTOS project for resource-constrained devices; The Capable Hub maintains CheriZephyr, a CHERI-enabled fork. Comparable as a vendor-neutral RTOS ecosystem with embedded systems focus and shared CI.
• seL4 Foundation: Non-profit stewarding the formally verified seL4 microkernel, which The Capable Hub ports and maintains (CHERI-seL4). Comparable as a small, mission-focused non-profit sustaining a single critical piece of open-source systems infrastructure with academic and government backing.
• CHERI Alliance: Primary industry consortium coordinating CHERI software development, of which The Capable Hub is a core contributor. Overlapping mission on upstream alignment and shared infrastructure; the Hub operates documentation and CI for CHERI Alliance projects including Linux, LLVM, QEMU, GDB, seL4, CheriZephyr, and Yocto layers.

Broad incumbents

• Linux Foundation: Largest non-profit consortium providing neutral governance, legal, and infrastructure support for open-source projects including Linux, LLVM, seL4, Zephyr, and Yocto — many of which The Capable Hub maintains forks of. Comparable as a non-profit funding and orchestration layer; broader in scope.
• RISC-V International: Industry consortium governing the RISC-V ISA, including the CHERI-RISC-V RVY draft that The Capable Hub supports. Directly relevant because CHERI adoption depends on RISC-V International ratification; comparable as an open, member-funded non-profit stewarding shared technical infrastructure.
• OpenSSF (Open Source Security Foundation): Linux Foundation-hosted cross-industry initiative addressing open-source security, including memory-safety initiatives relevant to CHERI's mission. Comparable as a non-profit coordination vehicle for cross-vendor security infrastructure work.

Emerging players

• lowRISC: Non-profit producing open-source RISC-V silicon (IBEX, Sonata) and associated tooling. Comparable as a UK-aligned non-profit producing open hardware/software IP stacks, with similar grant-funded model and overlap on CHERI-relevant RISC-V work.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/TheCapableHub

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about THE CAPABLE HUB