UKTN | The Podcast UKTN

Anne Glover, co-founder and CEO of Amadeus Capital Partners, discusses the ways that the tech investment scene has changed since her firm launched in the late 1990s, how tech started as a niche sector but has since started to encompass everything, why AI hype is valid but there's more to it than just generative AI, and what the UK needs to do to shake its history of not scaling tech companies like the US can. 
 
Glover co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners in 1997 alongside Hermann Hauser. The firm generally backs deep tech firms, with major portfolio companies including Graphcore, Improbable and Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Glover discusses how the firm these days is particularly keen on areas including quantum computing, health tech and cybersecurity. 

Melissa Snover, founder and CEO of Nourished, discusses how the advent of modern scientific data analysis has birthed the personalised health boom, why as an American expat she fell in love with Birmingham as a startup hub, and how women founders can fight the odds to close the funding gap.  
Snover is the founder of Nourished and Scripted, which provide personalised health products to prevent and treat conditions and make it easier for people to take important nutrients. Snover came to the UK from the States for university and decided as a young entrepreneur that Birmingham had everything she would need to start a thriving business. Nourished has been backed by more than £15m in funding and sells its tailor-made gummies via online subscription. 

Husayn Kassai, founder of Onfido and Quench.ai, suggests what the UK can do to attract more IPOs and build more scaleups, reflects on providing a 320x return on investment for the University of Oxford, and explains why people should be wary of the “excessive romanticisation” of unicorn success stories.  
Kassai co-founded Onfido, a digital ID company, in 2012 straight out of studying at the University of Oxford. The startup, which uses AI to verify identities, has raised more than $200m and grown to over 500 people, generating more than £140m in revenue. Earlier this year, it was acquired by US-based payments company Entrust. During this episode, Kassai shares what he learnt while building the business and explains why he thinks policy decisions are putting the brightest talent off from working in the UK. Since stepping down as CEO of Onfido, Kassai has launched Quench.ai, a startup developing an AI coach to help workers learn new skills. Kassai explains what’s next for the startup after raising £3.9m in pre-seed funding last year.

Flexa CEO and co-founder Molly Johnson-Jones discusses the future of flexible working, how companies can “turn hiring into marketing” and why she thinks some corporate CEOs are using flexible working as a scapegoat for innovation failures.  
Flexa is a careers platform that aggregates a company’s workplace benefits to give job candidates more information when applying for a role. Johnson-Jones co-founded the company in 2020 – alongside Maurice O’Brien, and Tim Leppard – after she was told to leave her job in investment banking. It came after Johnson-Jones, who has an auto-immune disease, had submitted a flexible work request. Flexa aims to inform job candidates about a company’s remote working and benefits policies. Approved companies, which include the likes of Atom Bank and Improbable, can then advertise open roles on the platform and applicants can filter by criteria. More than 2.5 million people now use the platform. In 2022, the startup raised £2m in a seed funding round led by Ada Ventures. Elsewhere in this episode, the Flexa CEO looks at the different approaches startups and corporates are taking for flexible working. 

Sam Grice, founder and CEO of Octopus Legacy, discusses how the administrative side of death can make the grieving process much harder, why we need to be able to talk about death to plan our lives properly and keeping the ethos of his business alive after it was acquired. 
 
Grice founded the company, originally called Guardian Angel, in 2016 after facing difficulties when dealing with the sudden death of his mother. The London-based company provides digital tools for people to prepare for end of life and to support those dealing with an unexpected loss through the process. Guardian Angel was acquired by Octopus Group in 2022, prompting the rebrand to Octopus Legacy. Grice discusses dealing with an acquisition from a major corporation and his approach to keeping the startup human centric. 

Improbable CEO and co-founder Herman Narula makes the case for the metaverse amid claims it is dead before it started, unpacks his company’s recent commercial deals and explains the impact AI is having on virtual world-building.  
Improbable develops the infrastructure for virtual worlds. Backed by the likes of SoftBank and Andreessen Horowitz, the London-based company designs, builds and operates metaverse experiences for brands. Recent projects include screening a Major League Baseball match in a virtual ballpark. Last year, Improbable sold its defence business and one of its gaming ventures. In this episode, Narula explains how these commercial deals have made Improbable a more sustainable business that doesn’t need to rely on venture capital. Elsewhere, he responds to what he sees as misconceptions about the metaverse and explains the role he sees web3 playing in preventing large tech companies from dominating the metaverse.