Tech Nation applications to relaunch in autumn 

Founder Discussion board Group (FFG), which acquired Tech Nation in April, introduced it’s getting ready for a September or October relaunch of Tech Nation applications.

Whereas the small print of Tech Nation’s reboot by the hands of FFG stay hazy, in line with UKTN reporting, the Libra, Rising Stars, Internet Zero X, and Future Fifty applications are all being thought-about for a relaunch.

This follows the stunning closure of Tech Nation in March after the federal government pulled important funding for the startup progress community.

Tech Nation relaunch goals and ambitions

Since launching in 2011, Tech Nation had been financed through the federal government’s Digital Progress Grant. Now awarded to Barclays, it’s a £12.09m pot of cash destined to help the UK’s current digital tech companies and scaling startups between 2023 and 2025.

However, in April this 12 months, Barclays Eagle Labs launched a two-year programme of enterprise help to drive progress throughout the UK tech sector. The Barclays program is to be funded by the federal government’s Digital Progress Grant, which beforehand had supported Tech Nation earlier than its closure in March.

This subsequent iteration of Tech Nation can be commercially run, however Founders Discussion board Group is but to reveal the precise particulars of the enterprise mannequin.

Founders Discussion board Group can be vying with Barclays to offer startup and scaleup help, as FFG seems to be for sources of funding to help the brand new iteration of Tech Nation.

Transferring ahead, the priorities for the Tech Nation rebirth can be to safe ample funding to revitalise its applications and to proceed to assist diversify the tech sector within the UK.

What does the way forward for Tech Nation appear like?

FFG is a worldwide neighborhood of companies that seeks to help entrepreneurs at each stage of progress and foster an revolutionary setting – the much-used phrase of ‘a UK Silicon Valley’ involves thoughts. It’s identified for internet hosting occasions and boards like its flagship convention, London Tech Week.

In a current UKTN podcast interview, Founders Discussion board Group’s CEO, Carolyn Dawson, shared, “We’re working by the plans. I believe essentially clearly the funding has been misplaced so we’ve to rebuild this”

“What we really feel enthusiastic about is that the applications proceed, that the insights and analysis proceed, and likewise that there’s a nationwide competitors for early stage firms and that every one of that is carried out throughout the UK,” emphasised Dawson.

Importantly, a precedence for Dawson and FFG is that the Tech Nation applications are angled at engendering the suitable incentive buildings to get startups to remain within the UK.

Startups have been cooling on the UK as an setting during which to launch, significantly following adjustments made to the R&D tax reduction scheme that got here into impact in April. The adjustments have made scaling manufacturing or labs within the UK much less engaging.

In accordance with a survey of 267 UK tech startups by foyer group Coadec, 84% had been involved they must have a look at offshoring extra tech improvement as a result of adjustments made to the R&D tax reduction scheme.

Between the adjustments to R&D funding and the closure of Tech Nation, UK startups are actually feeling an absence of presidency help. It’s this hole that the brand new Tech Nation programmes are designed to fill.

Dawson has said that FFG will look to work with the federal government as a result of their close-knit relationship with founders. “They belief and share with us what they really want. Due to this fact, we’re in a novel place to bridge boundaries with the federal government, inform them and assist develop insurance policies on what startups and entrepreneurs really need.”

The highway to a British Silicon Valley

The concept of a ‘British Silicon Valley’ has been repeatedly marketed by Jeremy Hunt, who lately outlined the Mansion Home Compact plan for reformed pensions funding into UK startups.

The plan commits 9 of the largest outlined contribution schemes to speculate no less than 5% of their funds into unlisted equities by 2030. The purpose? To unlock as much as £50 billion of funding into high-growth firms.

Up to now, home-grown pension funds have arguably been extra danger averse, leaving a scarcity of funding for startups. This impact turns into much more pointed after we analyse the distinction of entry to funding between startups and huge AI tech firms.

Hunt additionally requested the British Enterprise Financial institution to have a look at whether or not the federal government ought to play an even bigger position in organising funding autos.

Dawson has welcomed the coverage announcement and pressured to UKTN that, “The UK has all the nice substances, in all probability the perfect substances on the earth, together with entry to Europe, entry to cash and expertise.”

Nevertheless, Dawson equally warned that, “The UK has received to be sure that it continues to remain on high, when it comes to insurance policies.”

As FFG continues to search out its footing with Tech Nation, Dawson has pressured she desires to prioritise the internationalisation of UK startups.

FFG hosts a lot of flagship occasions internationally, not simply London Tech Week. It additionally hosts conferences in Singapore and New York, opening gateways to East Asia and Silicon Valley for these in its community.

As a part of the plans for Tech Nation’s relaunch, Dawson famous they’re “additionally taking a look at worldwide progress and growth in order that we will do extra to assist founders take into consideration worldwide progress methods.”

If issues go in line with plan, Tech Nation ought to come again revitalised later this 12 months.