London Tech Week (LTW) 2024 held from June 10 to June 14 at the Olympia venue has come to a close, with the number of attendees tallied to be around 45,000, up from 30,000 last year according to Russ Shaw, the founder of Global Tech Advocates (GTA) and the founding partner of the annual tech event.
Shaw says despite having London in the expo's name, they always aimed for LTW to be of global scope that just happens to take place in London.
DIGITIMES Asia's (DT) correspondent has spent a week kneedeep in the various events of LTW 2024, and the following are some highlights from each day of the expo that cover the full spectrum of UK's foremost cutting-edge critical technologies with the potential to send ripples across the world.
Critical Technology and VC investments
DT's coverage of LTW started with a closed-door seminar event away from the main spotlights of the grand opening. On June 10, at the Royal Society, international investors were gathered to receive a briefing on the progress of the critical tech sectors covered under the government-published 2023 UK Science and Technology Framework. The details of the organizers of this event and participants of a more offical capacity will not be disclosed due to the sensitivite nature of the UK's pre-election period.
The event mainly highlighted the UK's critical sectors including semiconductors, AI, medical tech, and Quantum technology with a panel discussion amongst international VC firm operators sharing their respective success stories in the UK and beyond.
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Regarding how to build tech start-ups into success stories, Charlotte Bruce, the head of operations at Techstars, a 2006-founded pre-seed investing firm, with a portfolio of investments in over 3,800 companies says thier key lies with a winning formula. "One of our textile value is that entrepreneurs and ideas can come from anywhere. But opportunity doesn't necessarily exist everywhere," Bruce says.
"In response, we've created our formula for opportunity. And that is capital combined with our accelerated programs plus connections equals opportunity", she added.
"This means" she explained, "that entrepreneurs are more likely to succeed when they're plugged into a thriving ecosystem". She cited the UK having a trillion-dollar worth of tech ecosystem and a 20-billion-dollar VC ecosystem as their reason to enter the UK market in 2013. With their London accelerators having the highest application volume in their network, the firm seeks to establish their main global hub outside the US right at the center of the UK capital.
Discussing the structure of NHS's digital innovation, Luella Trickett, Executive Director of Medical Devices, Value and Access at the Association of British HealthTechIndustries (ABHI) stated that, "National Health Service (NHS) is not one organization. If you're bringing innovations to the UK, you really do need to understand the NHS. There's a lot of data that's happening in that eco-system. One would need to try and get the data for thier most needed area for improvment and refinment in order to build the next generation of technology."
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Live from Olympia
Vibrant interactions between foreign investors and start-ups around the world can be seen on the floor of Olympia.
Various start-up representatives from countries such as Japan, South Africa, Pakistan, and Palestine set up booths and showcased their emerging solutions, looking to attract investor interest.
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Kai Zenner, the Head of Office and Digital Policy Adviser for MEP Axel Voss in the European Parliament tell DIGITIMES Asia while the EU AI Act can be seen as a significant milestone there are still drawbacks to the regional legislation and he hopes to see more AI regulation worldwide that followed upon the previously agreed upon priciples and consensus.
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From Brussels to the world: EU AI Act advisor on shaping the future of AI regulation:
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20240620VL208/eu-ai-regulation-edge-computing-innovation-it+ce-software-big-data.html
Pragmatic founder David Moore discussed Britain's role in the global semiconductor ecosystem during a keynote talk, championing for alternative enviormental friendly tech that leverage UK's decades of semicoductor legacy for a brighter future.
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Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy, highlighted the transformative impact of generative AI on customer service and energy transition.
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Video link to Moore and Jackson's keynote highlights: https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20240614VL205/london-tech-week-uk-semiconductor-industry-ic-manufacturing-ic-design-distribution.html?mod=3&q=Jerry+Chen
UK AI and chip start-ups on the rise
Digital Catapult (DC) works with startups, industries, investors, the public sector, and academia to accelerate the adoption of new and emerging technologies, and to drive regional, national, and international growth for UK businesses across the economy.
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DC directors talked about how they foster innovations that could help strengthen supply chain resilience.
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A panel discussion amongst the AI startups DC cultivated discussing how AI can help optimize future supply chains.
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Semiconductor-focused accelerator SiliconCatalyst.UK worked with start-up chip companies at ChipStart UK, a UK government-funded semiconductor startup incubator. The progress of Cohort 1 and 2 was presented on June 13 at the Institute of Directors in Pall Mall.
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Credit: DIGITIMES Asia
Various high-profile chip firms provided bespoke chip design tools, commercial expertise, and access to a network of specialist mentors and technology experts to these up-and-coming cohorts of companies.
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Cohort 1
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Cohort 2
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Former UMC CEO, Shih-Wei Sun announced the launch of SiCatalystVC.com, an additional VC arm of SiliconCatalyst.UK.
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An graph overview of all the major semiconductor investment deals in the UK of the past two decades.
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Semiconductor growth of UK and Taiwan
Professor Konrad Young of the National Taiwan University and former R&D Director at TSMC tells DIGITIMES Asia the area of collaboration he wishes to see more of going forward between Taiwan and the UK is quantum computing . An area he found to have limitless potential for growth during his trip to Cambridge and Oxford.
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Former TSMC R&D director Konrad Young advocates Taiwan-UK collaboration in quantum tech:
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20240621VL210/london-tech-week-ic-manufacturing-taiwan-uk-quantum-computing.html
At the Royal Society during the closing day of London Tech Week on June 15th, the Semi Impact Forum 2024 united Taiwanese and UK semiconductor leaders, including former TSMC R&D Director Professor Konrad Young and former UMC CEO Shih-Wei Sun. These experts shared their insights with UK advisors, fostering strategic collaboration. The event highlighted the synergy between both nations in advancing the semiconductor industry.
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Former TSMC and UMC leadership unite to chart future semiconductor ecosystem (article link): https://lnkd.in/gsbUxT83
UK aims for semiconductor leadership with Taiwanese partnership at Semi-Impact forum (article link): https://lnkd.in/gXJKYNyE
Highlight Reel: https://lnkd.in/gHamEVCQ
