September 2022 - A month in review

September is always a busy month for Tech Nation, and this last month was no exception, especially with all the press and media interest. Lots to celebrate and look back on.

Welcoming our latest inspiring cohorts to our growth programmes - Libra for underrepresented founders, Net Zero, FinTech and Future Fifty.

One of my favourite parts of being the CEO of a company like Tech Nation is getting to know the incredible companies who join our growth programmes each year. Our judges - who come from a variety of backgrounds, from academia and investment to large corporations - really do a great job at picking out the brightest and the best from all around the UK!?

You may have seen me posting a bit about the new cohorts already, but I do encourage you to head to our blog to find out more about the exciting companies joining Net Zero, Future Fifty, Fintech and Libra this year.?

Our kick off events for these programmes were incredible experiences, where our founders had the opportunity to meet each other, introduce themselves and listen to inspiring panels of entrepreneurs who have ‘been there and done it all before’. It seems to me the calibre of companies accepted into our programmes gets higher every year, and it was inspiring to hear their inspiring missions, and gain insight into the obstacles they face - and what we can do to help.

An illuminating panel at the Libra 2.0 kick-off event for underrepresented UK tech founders

Our wonderful Net Zero 3.0 cohort together at our London event space in Spitalfields

Of course, all of our cohorts are all completely unique, but many are struggling with the same challenges and find the peer-to-peer support they receive through our programmes completely invaluable. The companies joining Future Fifty, our longest-standing growth programme, are at a critical stage of growth, often looking to expand internationally - and at Series A+, the stakes are extremely high. The companies joining Libra, one of our newest programmes, designed for underrepresented UK tech founders, often face racial bias when fundraising or building new companies. And the amazing climate tech companies joining Net Zero need more investment into R&D to support their ambitious and vitally important goals. There is so much we can do to help and support all of these companies, and I’m passionate about championing and supporting them every step of the way.

The Faces of Visa 2022

Another highlight of my month was the launch of our eye-opening Faces of Visa 2022 Report (following a record number of migrants with tech skills applying for UK visas, as The Times reported), which I’d highly encourage you to read if you haven’t already.?

Among its findings:

• 18% of all UK tech companies are founded by at least one non-UK national.?
• These founders are accelerating the growth of the UK tech sector, as companies founded by non-UK nationals raised almost 23% of all UK tech VC investment (￡8bn) in 2021.

The data speaks for itself here, telling a powerful story about the importance of open immigration for UK tech. Immigration creates diversity, which in turn breeds innovation; helping us bridge the digital skills gap facing the UK tech sector, creating more jobs and helping build diverse and inclusive companies which solve problems facing the entire population.?

Making the point about the importance of global talent for the UK’s tech sector on Sky News.??

Exciting events across the country, from Edinburgh to Manchester...

As always, the Tech Nation team have been busy organising and attending events all across the UK, and meeting with amazing tech companies in every region. Here are a few of the highlights:

• In September, we enjoyed taking part in Leeds Digital Festival 2022, as Alina Cameron (our Scaleup Engagement Manager for Yorkshire and the Humber) hosted an inspiring fireside chat with XR Games’ Founder Bobby Thandi, where we heard about Bobby’s experience securing investment in a downturn, the highs and lows of his entrepreneurial journey and what’s next for the fast-scaling gaming company.?
• In the North West, Enterprise City hosted a fantastic and important event - ‘Scaling up Manchester’s tech ecosystem’ - in collaboration with Tech Nation, as we are a proud Knowledge Partner and supporter of Enterprise City. It was an evening of thought-provoking discussions and networking, where we looked at the growth that Manchester’s tech ecosystem has enjoyed over the last five years, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, and heard from the founders of Matillion and Peak AI, 2 of Manchester's many successful tech scaleups.

Our Director of Client Engagement Liz Scott led an amazing panel with Matillion and Peak AI in Manchester

• Earlier this month, our Board and Exec had our Board meeting up in Edinburgh in Scotland, an incredible part of the UK that is as rich in innovation as it is in history and beauty.?

Our Board and Exec team together in Edinburgh

…And exciting activities all around the world! ??

It’s also been an extremely busy month for our amazing International team! This week, Singapore hosted a major delegation of 24 cutting-edge British companies exploring growth opportunities in Asia Pacific. They work on diverse projects including driverless vehicles, lawtech, cybersecurity and deeptech. I’m proud to say our International team co-led the week by organising a delegation and creating a programme of 90 meetings with corporate partners and investors, as part of the UK Government's Digital Trade Network.

On top of this, the International team also travelled to Australia to continue meeting the amazing, ambitious UK tech companies who are expanding into the global market. Their first stop was Sydney, where they hosted the 13 companies joining their latest International programme, who were given the opportunity to meet with potential partners and customers, their mentors and the Department for International Trade (DIT) in Australia and Investment NSW who can provide support on the ground for these fast-scaling companies.?

Our International team in Sydney, Australia, with the third cohort of our International Growth Programme

Meet the UK’s most exciting early-stage lawtechs?

This month, our LawtechUK team were excited to announce their third Lawtech Sandbox cohort, made up of 31 of the UK’s pioneering early-stage lawtech companies.

Through the Lawtech Sandbox, the LawtechUK team is continuing to support UK founders and legal businesses developing new products and services transforming the UK legal sector, for the benefit of business and society. It’s fantastic to see this latest cohort building so many innovative lawtech solutions, with emerging themes being application of artificial intelligence, web3, and distributed ledger technology in legal services.?

It’s also encouraging that 51.7% of companies who applied were based outside of London, including from Scotland, the North West, Northern Ireland and Wales, as we continue to champion the growth of tech companies across every region of the UK.

I’m excited to see what the future holds for our newest pioneers who are reshaping businesses' and society's experience of law.?

Thank you for the support plus what's coming up

We’re not done announcing our new growth programme cohorts yet! This week alone, we are announcing the companies joining our Applied AI and Upscale growth programmes, as well as our first ever group of Net Zero X companies; the UK’s leading late-stage climate tech companies helping us address the biggest challenge of our time - the climate crisis.

Finally and importantly, I wanted to express our gratitude for the industry’s continued support and engagement in Tech Nation. Tech Nation is the driver of the tech scaleup growth. We’ve supported over 4,000 UK tech companies from all around the U.K thus far. While on average 80% of start-ups collapse within their first 2-5 years, over 95% of the companies supported by Tech Nation have so far gone on to scale. Indeed, there is a +46% acceleration in turnover in companies supported by Tech Nation within 2 years.

But the job’s not done. More needs to be done to boost regions across the UK, support underrepresented founders, drive tech investment for achieving net zero and ensure scale-ups have the dedicated, impartial support they need to grow and succeed.?

With the right ecosystem in place, the number of scale-ups and unicorns could be doubled by 2030. These certainly are exciting times ahead for the UK as a whole.

Thank you all for reading! Until next time...