SUPERTECH MID-YEAR UPDATE JULY 2022

As we reach the mid-point of 2022, it’s been a very busy first half of the year at SuperTech. Hilary Smyth-Allen, SuperTech Executive Lead, looks back at what has happened, and what is still to come.

Emerging from the pandemic like our businesses, ‘eventing’ is well and truly back! Across all of our strands of activities, in person meetings are thriving and the connections made are helping to advance the ProfTech scene in Birmingham and wider West Midlands.

This month we hosted the FinTech National Network (FNN), which SuperTech is a member of representing our region within the UK FinTech ecosystem.  The Investment Association welcomed all of us to their Levelling Up Innovation in Assessment Management event at their Birmingham base. The same day we spoke with City of London Corporation and the consultants leading the work for the Kalifa Review recommended Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT). At this formative stage the voices of the FNN have been vital in ensuring that the new Centre will deliver growth for the UK beyond the capital and the opportunity to host the dialogue was appreciated by all. Engagement continues, with SuperTech engaging with our FinTech base such as at the Leaders diner in May.

SuperTech’s Hilary Smyth-Allen (2nd left) and Suzi Evans (right) with colleagues from the FinTech National Network at the IAEngine’s regional FinTech event.

Championing PropTech

On the PropTech side, SuperTech hosted a proptech themed hackathon working with the UK PropTech Association and The Investment Association once more to set themes and challenges facing the industry. The hackathon also brought another of SuperTech’s missions to the fore in being anchored in no-code, challenging participants to rapid build solutions without coding.  The skills gained were highly valued by both the techies and the non-techies, which was not totally anticipated and the solutions built in a matter of hours were very impressive.

We’ve also hosted our first two West Midlands PropTech Showcase events. These free-to-attend events have been put together to showcase our region’s PropTech sector - which is continually thriving.  

Last, but certainly not least, we launched 20 no. new businesses at the SuperTech Seeds demo day, welcoming over 80 attendees from across the community, near and far to support our most recent founder cohort.  With business ideas ranging from financial services for Indian student migrants to leadership development apps and beyond, the day was a massive celebration of all of the hard work of the participants and the SuperTech team. At the same time, we were processing applications to what is affectionately being referred to as “Season 3” intake, demand persists for this programme and the outcomes are compelling. Nine new businesses formed thus far, with six launched to market and counting.  We look forward to hearing more of their stories as they transition to SuperTech alumni and grow their business.

So, what does the remainder of 2022 look like?

At the end of July I’ll be presenting at the West Midlands Growth Company’s Modern Business Services Sector Showcase Day. This event coincides with UK House, and will help demonstrate why the West Midlands is home to the largest UK regional Business, Professional and Financial Services (BPFS) cluster. I’ll be joining other industry experts, and will provide an overview of SuperTech as well as the wider ProfTech opportunities across our region.

As we head into Autumn, we’ll be facilitating conversations between established businesses and new entrants within our region as we launch the second round of our Connector Series. This proved massively successful last year and allowed SMEs, startups and founders across the FinTech, InsurTech, LegalTech, PropTech and HRtech sectors exclusive access to major firms in our region - all designed to help unlock our region’s true ProfTech potential. Watch this space for further news on who we have participating this year…

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