Just like that, London Tech Week 2024 has been and gone – and what a week it was!
Ater 10 years and becoming one of the most highly anticipated weeks in the tech ecosystem and community, it was great to see such a big turnout at both the conference and fringe events. As FieldHouse was founded in 2012, we’ve grown alongside London Tech Week and have been a dedicated supporter since day one. So, as you’d expect, we were busy!
Here were some of our key takeaways, thoughts, and feelings about last week …
Home Grown – The Big Tech Debate
Kicking off the week in style, Home Grown hosted a panel moderated by Mike Butcher MBE, Editor-at-large of TechCrunch, focusing on the dynamic landscape of M&A within the tech space. Bringing together industry titans and thought leaders to explore the pivotal question: what lies ahead for M&A in the realm of technology?
One of the biggest challenges highlighted in the panel was for AI companies – lots of businesses don’t have ‘purity’ of AI and investors are increasingly probing at a company’s use of AI. And the opportunity for AI is huge – as the population grows, there is massive potential to close the productivity gap.
London Tech Week conference
Spanning over three days and six stages, there were so many brilliant talks from investors, innovators, and key voices from across the ecosystem.
Janet Coyle CBE, Managing Director at London & Partners, moderated a really interesting panel on Tuesday about “Does Place Matter? Where to Found a Startup and How to Go Global”. The panel discussed that it’s not just about where you found the company – it’s also about who you are and what you’re doing. Ensuring there is a good ecosystem around you and you leverage your network is vitally important. They also touched on why Unicorns can come from anywhere and why this will only be accelerated by AI.
Gravita ran a workshop on ‘tax tips for scaling tech companies: avoiding pitfalls and maximising cash runway’. The panel took a deep dive into the importance of setting up your business well from inception to ensure operations run smoothly throughout your business journey – all the way to a potential exit. Structure and organisation is key: although this may sound obvious, keeping documents organised and filed properly is essential to a successful business. Having professional advisers to help with tax efficiency can be a real benefit too, particularly in helping to understand different tax reliefs such as EIS and SEIS.
As with all previous London Tech Weeks, we had a great time and enjoyed hearing from thought leadership across all corners of the tech world. Unsurprisingly, AI was a large focus, and it will be interesting to see whether this continues and how much it accelerates into London Tech Week 2025.
Fintech Fringe
Fintech Fringe is one of the most anticipated fringe events during London Tech Week. Spanning over four days – day and evening – and at multiple locations, the event is aimed at high-growth fintech scaleups looking to scale and grow in the UK.
Some of our best takeaways were from the final day session: Leading VCs share their Fundraising Tips during The State of Venture Capital and Alternative Investment moderated by Nick Sylvester, Co-founder and Chief Investment Officer at A1 Advisory. Sean Duffy, Managing Director of CIBC Innovation Banking UK & Europe, joined the panel to discuss why venture debt or growth financing might be a good funding option for fintechs. A key point of interest was understanding when to bring on venture debt, whether it’s right for your startup, and what you need to do to prepare for it.
Future Worlds
It wouldn’t be London Tech Week without attending Future Worlds Demo Day. Based out of the University of Southampton (UoS), Future Worlds is an on-campus accelerator helping UoS startup founders change their ideas into reality. We heard from some brilliant startups, spanning climate tech to femtech – and with such a great turnout of investors and notable partners such as NOTWICS, it was a great platform for pitching and connecting with valuable members of the ecosystem.
See you next year …
And that’s a wrap! It was great to see lots of familiar and new faces having some really important discussions about the future of tech and investment. Looking forward to seeing what the year ahead holds … see you in 2025!
