Maven hosted a technology roundtable, chaired by Senior Investment Manager, David Nixon, and featuring a number of regional tech founders, sector experts and advisors. In the second part of this series, we explore the rising demand for technological innovation, hearing from companies that have successfully navigated this environment over recent years and explore the opportunities for driving growth in the current economic climate.
In the ever-evolving landscape of our economy, the demand for technological innovation has become more than a trendit’s a necessity. As we navigate through a complex economic period, businesses face both challenges and opportunities. The rapid pace of change requires a strategic approach to innovation to ensure sustained growth.
The UK currently has one of the slowest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates in the G7 and there have been some challenges in recent years due to a number of micro and macro economic factors, yet despite this, the North East remains a growth area for start-up and growth software companies. And at the heart of this growth lies the power of technological innovation.
David Nixon: The recent uncertain economic environment has not only provided challenges, it has also presented great opportunities. We’ve seen portfolio companies come to terms with increased price sensitivity from clients, overhead volatility, tight labour markets, growing competition as some software markets mature, and longer sales cycles. But still, the digital sector represents an integral part of the UK’s economy. New technologies help drive efficiencies and improve productivity, and as such software remains a high growth area.
The UK’s digital market was valued at over £50bn in 2023 with digital technologies, cloud computing, AI, and Internet of Things (IoT) increasing as more and more businesses are adopting a tech-led strategy and implementing digital processes. The success of cloud technology and platform business models has contributed significantly to the tech industry’s value creation.
Kevin Beales, Founder of MySalesCoach, sales coaching as a service platform: There are some great success stories in the North East but achieving extraordinary levels of growth is a real challenge. In an ideal world, once you understand the market, if you build a solid product, customers will pay for it. Technology businesses need to take time to prove the need for their solution or product before building out their idea. And continuing to improve and innovate your product as you gather data is where you stand out from the competition.
Gilbert Corrales, Founder of Leaf Grow, an end-to-end performance marketing services platform: Building a technology business is unlike many other industries and creating technology to scale sometimes requires a complete change of plan. Often as long as you are very good at what you do, focussing on one problem and building solutions, not features to solve that problem, there is opportunity for growth.
To stay ahead, technology businesses must continuously embrace and leverage the latest technologies and trends, turning challenges into opportunities.
By 2025, more than 50 billion devices will be connected to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and according to the world economic forum we’ll experience more technological progress in the coming decade than we did in the preceding 100 years. Almost half of all existing work activities could be automated as next-level process automation becomes more commonplace.
Pete Daykin, Founder of Wordnerds, an innovative customer feedback analysis tool: From our position as an early-stage business, taking part in accelerator programmes, most businesses find you either need a very technical team to build something deep tech or you need to leverage opensource or you need a lot of capital to hire a good team. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to develop real or innovative tech that no one else can. You can spend a year building software before you get to the validation stage to see if anyone is going to buy your solution, or you can use opensource which is arguably faster but worse quality. But once you get to a certain size you can invest in time and resources and people to build something new and different.
Paul Lancaster, Founder of UK Startup Week and PLATFORM, a monthly event for entrepreneurs: I’ve spent a lot of time with Tech Nation and we were good at empowering companies across industries to build more efficient and effective digital solutions. To thrive in this space, businesses need to focus on innovation, market your products effectively, get funding and build a strong team. Target gaps in the market for innovation, be agile and lean with costs, look to partnerships and collaborations, attract top talent and seek funding to support your initiatives. Overall, the pivot to digital across the wider economy is driving demand in the sector.
It’s clear the reciprocal relationship between technological innovation and economic growth is undeniable. Investors play a pivotal role in fuelling innovation and as we stand on the brink of the tech revolution, it’s imperative for businesses to embrace innovation as a catalyst for growth. Innovation is not just a buzzword, it’s the driving force behind success. To stay ahead, technology businesses must continuously adopt and leverage the latest technologies and trends, turning challenges into opportunities.
Maven is one of the UK’s most active private equity investors and is passionate about working with ambitious technology-led businesses to achieve their strategic goals and maximise growth potential. If your business, or the business you advise, is looking at private equity as a solution to fund future growth we would love to hear from you. Speak to one of our investment team by getting in touch at funding@mavencp.com