Baltic Ventures May Newsletter
The Baltic Ventures launch event last week really felt like the start of something exciting. Sure, I say that as someone who writes this newsletter, but also as someone who has watched the tech sector in the North develop over the past 15 years.?
While the tech industry in this part of the world has made huge progress in the past few years, last week’s event felt like the beginning of the next push forward to build something even stronger for Liverpool and the North, and to help develop a new generation of startups with world-changing ambitions.
Applications are open?for the first cohort of the Baltic Ventures accelerator. You only have until 12pm BST on 9 June to apply. Don’t leave it until the last minute!
– Martin SFP Bryant
The liver bird rises
While anyone looking for a spare hotel room might not have agreed, it was perfect timing that the Baltic Ventures launch event took place in the same week as the Eurovision Song Contest.
Together, the two events painted a picture of Liverpool as unapologetically ambitious for its future.
Walking through the city centre, I soaked up the Eurovision atmosphere, before arriving in the Baltic Triangle for a tech accelerator launch event with a buzzy atmosphere that felt more like a major conference.?
Opening the event, Liverpool City Region metro mayor Steve Rotheram talked of building businesses, jobs, and prosperity through initiatives like a plan to invest 5% of local GVA into R&D by 2030, and LCR Connect, a fast, full-fibre network spanning the region and linking up to the?supercomputer at Sci-Tech Daresbury?and to the wider internet via transatlantic cables.
But talk of the region becoming the “Silicon Valley of the UK” won’t lead to anything without a high-quality entrepreneurial ecosystem. And that point was hammered home repeatedly by the panellists onstage throughout the afternoon.
Thankfully, going all the way to London to meet investors is no longer the default option when you’re growing a startup in the North. But Gemma McCall of Manchester’s?Culture Shift?made clear that raising money and breaking into the world of investors is still a skill that needs to be learned.
That skill is particularly important when the pool of tech investors out there is relatively small. But as Baltic Ventures co-founder Carl Wong pointed out, investors follow dealflow - the more investable startups there are in a region, the more investors there will be.
It’s this ‘chicken and egg’ situation that Baltic Ventures can help solve. And while its annual accelerator programme is the lynchpin of its activity, its other forthcoming initiatives–like the pre-accelerator for the earliest-stage ideas, and a talent programme to ensure startups have plenty of people to hire locally–show how Baltic Ventures is a key part of the Liverpool City Region’s future.
The Baltic Ventures logo hadn’t really made sense to me until CEO Claire Lewis explained it onstage at the event. It’s inspired by that great icon of Liverpool, the liver bird.?
Imagine the liver bird rising, phoenix-like; that’s the logo, and a perfect graphical representation of what it felt like in that room on a sunny May afternoon as the world’s eyes turned to a great city on the Mersey with big plans for its future.
Start-ups to watch
With the aim of “solving coding illiteracy at scale,”?Cubode?is a Liverpool startup to look out for.?
Its A.I., no-code platform helps data analysts harness the power of programming to achieve more, faster, while learning to code.?
“We’re eliminating the need to invest months in learning a coding language before being able to build anything,”?says founder?Rebeca Garcia.
Rebeca co-founded the company with her brother David to solve a problem she saw first-hand as a data analyst, but she says the startup’s ultimate vision is much bigger
“Cubode is on a mission to make coding accessible to anyone regardless of their background or where they are.”
Words on everyone’s lips
‘What happened to the metaverse?’:?Exciting leaps forward in the world of A.I. have become a hot topic of conversation in the tech world this year. Big tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg have been talking up their companies’ A.I. work, keen to show shareholders they’ve not been left behind.
But that’s led some to wonder whether Zuckerberg, who less than two years ago changed his company’s name to Meta and went all-in on a VR- and AR-powered future filled with virtual experiences, backed the wrong horse.
Interest in the metaverse has?waned?as early products in the space failed to excite users, and Meta isn’t quite as noisy about its work in the space as it was a year ago. Meanwhile, companies like Disney and Microsoft have scaled back their metaverse plans.
It goes to show how the tech industry follows hype cycles fed by a continuous hunger for the ‘next big thing’, even if that ‘next big thing’ is nowhere near ready for primetime. By contrast, new A.I. tech is already having a clear impact on people’s lives and work.
Technologies don’t necessarily turn out how excited talk suggests they will, and while Meta may still eventually deliver a compelling metaverse in a few years from now, Zuckerberg’s reason for talking it up was largely driven by a need to show shareholders a future beyond social media.
‘Is this just short-term hype?’ is an important question entrepreneurs–and investors–should ask themselves wherever a new bandwagon rolls into town.?
You need to know...
Over the past three decades, Liverpool-based River Capital has supported more than 2,300 SMEs, and has a portfolio of early-stage startup investments in the North West of England.
They currently focus on artificial intelligence companies, following the launch of the North’s first dedicated A.I. EIS fund, fund:AI, last November.
What Marc does:
“My job – everyone’s job at?River Capital?- is to fuel ambition. The Venture team does it by investing in ambitious businesses that show significant potential. We focus on companies that are within seven years of their first sale. They are often but not always within the North West of England.
“When it comes to selecting startups to invest in, first we look at the team. Then we look at the team again. After that, we look at a dashboard of items. These include a clear value proposition in an attractive market, a solid strategy and a sensible funding runway. Evidence of traction (e.g., early customer adoption or user engagement) is also helpful.”
?Scouse Word of the Month
Each month, we celebrate the city we are from, by helping you learn the lingo....
Scouse:?Not just the people and dialect of Liverpool, but also a tasty meat and vegetable stew enjoyed in the Merseyside area. There’s even a?Global Scouse Day?held every year on 28 February.?
You're invited.....
Join Baltic Ventures and?OneTech?for a 2-part, interactive bootcamp where you will be immersed in learning the fundamentals of starting and scaling a business.
Plus, our special lineup of Liverpool’s accomplished entrepreneurs will also be there to share valuable insights and advice with you!
Saturday 3rd June - The StartUp Game Bootcamp Powered by OneTech
Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th July - Business Bootcamp Powered by OneTech