CBI president tells Edinburgh event UK must innovate its way out of crisis
Delivering a keynote address at the EIE20 tech investor event, CBI president and Cobra Beer founder Lord Bilimoria remarked that, “our country is at a crossroads and we must innovate our way out of this”.
He noted that Cobra Beer had lost two-thirds of its sales over lockdown.
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Hide AdMeanwhile, at the same event, techUK President Jacqueline de Rojas said the organisation has seen the demand for digital skills “grow exponentially on the back of Covid-19” while also championing diversity in the tech sector.
EIE20 led off with an investor-only event featuring former Skyscanner chief operating officer Mark Logan, whose Scottish Government-commissioned report on Scotland’s tech sector was published in August.
The main conference included pitches from 50 start-up to scale-up founders pitching for seed funding to series A investment rounds up to £5 million. Pitching companies included hotel app Criton, sensor technology specialist start-up Beringar and ethical finance start-up Soar.
Danny Helson, programme manager for EIE, said: “All our companies did a brilliant job and they got a rare forum in which to pitch to investors from across the globe.”
The conference featured online “pavilions” bringing start-ups, investors, government and advisers together from Germany, the Americas and Asia-Pacific.
EIE has supported nearly 500 tech start-ups and scale-ups since 2008 which have collectively raised over £750 million. EIE alumni companies include FanDuel, Current Health, Two Big Ears, pureLiFi, Float, Speech Graphics and Cyan Forensics.
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