Next month more than 70,000 people are expected to descend on Lisbon for the annual Web Summit.
Representing fast-growth businesses, policymakers, founders and CEOs of some of the world’s largest tech businesses, the four-day summit will look to answer the question – what’s next for the tech industry?
Web Summit is also home to the KPMG Private Enterprise Global Tech Innovator competition, where fast-growth businesses from 23 countries will go head-to-head to find the ultimate 2023 innovator.
You can register to attend the event virtually here.
Representing the UK is St Helen’s-based Inovus Medical, which was crowned KPMG’s Tech Innovator in the UK in July.
We caught up with Inovus Medical CEO Dr Elliot Street about how the team are preparing for their moment in the spotlight.
What has your business been doing since you won the UK final in July?
Elliot Street: We’ve been really busy! Since winning the competition we have opened our USA headquarters which will focus on sales support, implementation, distribution, and technical support for our rapidly growing US customer base. We have also doubled our USA headcount and announced a major partnership that will see our technology being mandated for training over to 10,000 physicians across the USA.
How are you preparing for the global tech innovator final in Lisbon?
ES: I will be in the USA helping to support the continued expansion of the business and focussing on delivering on the ambitions and plans that we laid out in our pitch at the UK final.
I am hoping that by the time we reach Lisbon, many of the headline figures we presented to the UK judges in July will be out of date (for the positive) so I will be spending time ensuring our ‘new pitch’ is well learned and ready for the main stage at the global finals.
We are extremely grateful and really excited to be able to attend Web Summit as the UK winner which will provide amazing networking opportunities. We’re excited to make the most of the wider event and will be reaching out to various stakeholders (investors, strategic partners) to arrange as many meetings as we can.
What did you learn from the UK leg of the competition that you are taking forward to your next pitch?
ES: Every second counts in the pitch! Three minutes is an incredibly short time to articulate a complex technology with a mature business model behind it so ensuring that every word in the pitch brings value.
Second to that, make sure to have fun and enjoy the pitch itself and the wider event. These opportunities are few and far between as founders, enjoying the moment is a must.
What are you most looking forward to about the global competition?
ES: We’re really looking forward to meeting the other global finalists. I can’t wait to get back on stage to compete with the best tech innovators from across the world, hopefully learning a great deal from the cohort and bringing back some insights to our team in the North West of the UK.
Is there anything you think you might do differently in your pitch to a global audience?
ES: I may have a few tricks up my sleeve but you will have to wait until the day to find out!
What have you learned about your business through entering the competition?
ES: Going through the process of entering the competition was a really interesting exercise for us. We’ve ultimately learned that we have been incredibly capital-efficient on our journey of building the business, reaching a significant scale with a relatively small quantum of capital.
This has taught us that patient urgency is a powerful mantra and one we should continue to focus on as we push for further scale.
What are you most excited about for the future of Inovus Medical?
ES: To continue to work towards our mission of becoming the world’s partner for surgical training. This year we have seen that mission resonate more than ever with our end users, it is allowing us to rapidly scale the uptake of our technology, and this is having a proven impact on surgical skill and the quality of surgical care for patients.
Ultimately, what we are excited about is the clear path we are on to help save over 1.5 million lives per year through improved surgical care, no need for coffee, that gives our whole team all the energy they need to keep working towards the mission!
The Global Tech Innovator competition will be taking place on 15th November.
The 23 global finalists are:Sapia.ai (Australia), Pix Force (Brazil), Phabuilder (China), Bia Energy (Colombia), Healthycrop.World (Denmark), SemiQon (Finland), instagrid (Germany), Motito (Ghana), Lynkit (India), Nory (Ireland), Nanocarry (Israel), Pale Blue (Japan), leadsales (Mexico), inPhocal (Netherlands), Peddlr (Philippines), Rauva (Portugal), Netzero (Saudi Arabia), MatchMX (Southern Africa), PlasticFri AB (Sweden), Lypid (Taiwan), Inovus Medical (UK), Reveald (United States), DigiMe (Vietnam).