New Zealand tech companies land in the UK for London Tech Week

14 innovative Kiwi tech scaleups have landed in the UK to join London Tech Week, Europe’s largest tech festival running 13-17 of June. Alongside the event the UK Government has created a tailored programme for the Kiwi tech companies. This week they will join events, consultations, and exclusive meetings to fast track their expansion into the UK. This is the first physical programme the UK has run from New Zealand since 2019.

Now in its ninth year, London Tech Week welcomes 20,000 participants and over 300 speakers. This year the focus of the festival revolves around exploring the next generation of tech innovation, impactful innovation at scale and building a thriving tech industry. As a part of their exclusive programme, New Zealand delegates will have intimate sessions on raising capital in the UK, setting up in the UK, and tech growth in the UK. They will hear directly from Tech Nation, Oury Clark, Telstra, Mishchon de Raya and many more.

The UK tech ecosystem remains an ideal investment location for international companies with the industry growing at a faster rate than the UK economy. UK tech captured more than a third of the total £89.5 billion investment into Europe in 2021 with £29.4 billion raised by UK startups and scaleups. Though London remains an epicentre for tech growth, the regions are also becoming a hotbed for investment. With more money than ever flowing into UK tech, almost £9 billion of all venture capital invested went into startups and scaleups outside London and the South East. The regions are now home to nine of the 29 unicorns formed in 2021.

The New Zealand London Tech Week 2022 cohort was selected under one of the following subsectors of tech:

  • Future Technology – including artificial intelligence, big data and cyber security.
  • Educational Technology
  • Digital Health – including medtech and medical devices.
  • Financial Technology

This UK Government trade mission is being led in partnership with Kea New Zealand and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.

British Consul General and Deputy Trade Commissioner Asia Pacific (Australia and New Zealand), Louise Cantillon said:

After signing the UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement earlier this year, it is fantastic to see an innovative and progressive cohort of New Zealand tech scaleups join our London Tech Week mission. This is our first physical programme to the UK from New Zealand since 2019. I am very excited to see what successes come from this week for our delegates.

The UK tech sector was valued this year at $1trillion (£764 billion). According to new research from Tech Nation, the UK is fourth in the world for tech investment at £32.6 billion, having achieved a record year in 2021. Last year we saw more private capital flow into UK tech than any other European country – £27.4 billion.

This week the UK Government has published a new Digital Strategy. A key focus of this policy demonstrates the UK’s commitment to improving the tech ecosystem to ensure that the UK remains one of the best places in the world to start and run a digital technology business. This includes improving access to finance, another step forward in making the UK the best place to list an ambitious technology business.

CEO of Cemplicity, Blaik Wilson said:

We’re honoured to be attending London Tech Week for the second time. As a company driving improvement in patient experiences and outcomes, we knew much of the thought leadership and new thinking in this area originated out of the NHS. However, while the thinking is well advanced, the practice was still heavily mired in manual processes, inhibiting the NHS’s ability scale. We have already seen our platform make big improvements for the various health operators in which we operate.

As we establish ourselves in market, we have learnt the importance of networking and knowledge gathering to our success. We are ready to scale and London Tech Week in particular, is a great chance to meet with other Australian and New Zealand companies, to learn from their experiences and to access experts in the UK within healthcare and investor networks.

It is going to be an actioned-packed week of events and we’re really looking forward to it.

A representative from CarbonClick said:

CarbonClick is an enviro-tech company whose global mission is to enable a more ‘climate friendly’ approach to how businesses operate and individuals live, work and travel. London Tech Week offers an “important and potentially transformative” platform.

CarbonClick CEO Dave Rouse is part of a small New Zealand delegation and the only New Zealander to speak at the event as part of the ‘Global Leaders Innovation Summit.’

What message will CarbonClick be taking to London Tech Week?

Ignite the conversation around the energy demands and opportunities within the tech sector to help reverse the climate catastrophe our world is facing – right now!

Digital growth, including the domain of Web3, has a significant energy demand and, therefore, carbon footprint. The ultimate challenge for technology leaders lies in sustainable designs that consider the energy requirements as part of the design process and then complement this with carbon offsetting.

Head of Market Development Dotterel Technologies, Rohan Adarkar said:

Dotterel Technologies is an Auckland based company that is showcasing its Konos microphone at London Tech Week. Konos is a breakthrough new audio product that uses the power of 80 microphones in one small package to allow crisp sound in high noise environments. Konos has practical applications in movie production, live broadcast, sport, security and search and rescue.

Dotterel is looking to work with companies in these sectors in the UK, as well as recruit partners to craft new innovative solutions. We see London Tech Week being a great way to find these companies and start investigating the best path of entry to the UK and European markets.

About the UK’s Department for International Trade:

The UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT):

  • helps businesses export
  • drives inward and outward investment
  • negotiates market access and trade deals
  • champions free trade

Find out more about DIT.