Welsh innovation was on full show this month, with hundreds of people descending on Cardiff for the 2024 edition of the highly respected Wales Technology Awards. Held every year, the Wales Technology Awards is a glamorous affair and can be easily described as the Oscars of the Welsh technology industry.
This year’s ceremony was held on March 22nd at Mercure Cardiff Holland House Hotel & Spa and was hosted by BBC Wales news presenter Jennifer Jone. Given the continued hype surrounding AI, it’s no surprise that the coveted Sir Michael Moritz Tech Startup Award—named after Cardiff-born billionaire and iconic venture capitalist Michael Moritz himself—went to Optimise-AI.
The Cardiff-based company, founded by Nick Tune and Yacine Rezgui in 2023, uses AI and digital twin technology to lower the energy use and carbon footprint of non-domestic buildings. Other Welsh tech companies and entrepreneurs to pick up awards were Finalrentals, Matthew Davies of The Social Work Way, Sameer Rahman of DataMonet, Soulindata, Credit Canary, Animated Technologies, Butterfly Data, Clear_Pixel VR, and Electric Pocket.
While AI might have been a hot topic at this year’s Wales Technology Awards, it seems the rest of the country hasn’t caught up with the technology just yet. According to new research from an intelligent data infrastructure company NetApp, only 8% of Welsh businesses strongly understand how to get the most out of AI. That’s compared to a nationwide average of 20%.
The report described Welsh companies as the “most disillusioned” with AI and found that 69% aren’t currently planning to adopt the technology. Meanwhile, only 10% of Wales-based companies will increase their AI spending by twofold in 2024.
Despite this, Wales is home to some exciting AI tech startups with real-world applications. One such example is Amplifi, which provides business leaders with automated market insights using AI and machine learning.
In a new case study published this month, the company details how it helped professional services giant Deloitte reduce the time it takes to read complex C-suite reports. The company claims this would usually take a couple of days, but its team has reduced it to two hours.
Fear of failure holding back Welsh tech firms
In another worrying study, the AI-powered business platform Venture Planner found that the fear of failure is preventing 40% of aspiring Welsh entrepreneurs from launching businesses. Societal judgment, the cost-of-living crisis and education gaps are also holding back the dreams of Wales’ future entrepreneurs, according to the study.
Alex Clansey, co-founder and CEO of Venture Planner, blamed these concerns on a “lack of proper preparation through formal education”. He said: “A lot of people wouldn’t even know where to begin with the essential preparatory work – a gap that likely exists because these skills are not imparted in their education.”
But this scepticism regarding entrepreneurship hasn’t prevented startups from achieving a home run in the arena of Welsh tech. In fact, new research from Barclays Eagle Labs claims that Wales and Yorkshire were the UK regions to break “the global trend of a post-pandemic funding slump” in 2023. Welsh startups raised £112m of investment, an increase of 8.7%.
As well as a booming AI industry and high levels of investment among startups, another growth area of the Welsh tech sector is semiconductors. And its future seems bright with the Welsh government recently acquiring a vacant Cardiff-bassed building for a cool £5.8m to establish a semiconductor hub in the Welsh capital.
The building, which is 2,000 sq ft and located at Cardiff Gate Business Park, was previously leased by Lloyds and will form part of government plans to aid the growth of Welsh semiconductors. Perhaps this means we should replace Silicon Valley with the Silicon Valleys of Wales?!
And of course, UKTN published its report on the Welsh tech sector this week. You can read it here to learn about the challenges and opportunities, along with the country’s key players.
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