UKTN | The Podcast

Volodymyr Levykin, the CEO and founder of Skyrora, talks about building a satellite “taxi service”, how space tech has become an asset in defending Ukraine, the potential of space tourism and the challenges surrounding commercial space travel.   Levykin, a Ukrainian-born tech entrepreneur, spent time working in IT in Silicon Valley before moving to Edinburgh to found rocket company Skyrora. Levyki...

Dr Giorgia Longobardi, the co-founder and CEO of Cambridge GaN Devices, shares her experience spinning out a startup from the University of Cambridge, being a woman in STEM, developing energy-efficient microchips and why the UK government urgently needs to develop a semiconductor strategy.   Longobardi co-founded CGD, a fabless semiconductor company, in 2016. It is developing transistors that use...

Anne Boden, CEO and founder of digital bank Starling, talks about her journey taking on the big banks, being the “odd one out” in the world of finance, why VCs are overlooking female founders and why crypto is “lacking sufficient practical and moral purpose”.     Boden founded Starling Bank in 2014 after decades of working for some of the world’s biggest banks. Starling, which is an online-only ba...

Barney Wragg, CEO and founder of robotic kitchen automation startup Karakuri, talks about his time at chip giant Arm, the danger of semiconductor trade barriers, finding product-market fit, and how AI is creating more – not less – jobs.   Wragg founded Karakuri, a London-based robotics startup, in 2018. Its two main products are a robotic arm that serves personalised sushi dishes, and an automated...

Immersive Labs CEO and founder James Hadley discusses the dangers of generative AI like ChatGPT in cybersecurity, the lessons learned from laying off 10% of staff, and cracking the cyber skills shortage.    Hadley founded Immersive Labs, a Bristol-based cybersecurity training platform, in 2017. The company’s platform creates cyberattack simulations to teach organisations practical IT security skil...

Zilch co-founder and CEO, Philip Belamant, gets candid on disrupting the fintech sector, catapulting Zilch to double unicorn status and being the fastest growing company out of Europe and the UK. He gets into their American takeover, with a preregistration of over 150,000 customers ahead of their stateside launch based out of Miami. Belamant delves on the astounding growth of their customer base,...

Brad Goodall is no stranger to the fintech industry, having worked for scale ups and start-ups for years before starting his own founder journey. He talks at length on the concept of Banked and how this is more than a new technology to combat fraud but will be a major shift in consumer behaviour. Goodall shares how they got the backing of Bank of America and what this will mean for their expansion...

Sho Sugihara recounts his experiences that inspired and led him to start Pave. He talks on the importance of passion in addition to having a great product and audience. Sugihara emphasises the necessity of listening to your customers and how he went one step further by living their experiences. This commitment to understanding his audience allowed Sugihara to grow his business to over half a milli...

Gerald Chappell and Dr. Michelle He launched Fintern at the start of the pandemic, they get into how they had to take down advertising a few months before launch as too many people were signing up. With the intention to disrupt the consumer lending market, Chappell and He explain why their concept puts the customer at the heart of the company by catering loans to individual spending and not just b...

Mathew Prior gets candid on the concept of TrustedHouseSitters and why they’re different in more than one way to Airbnb. Making sure they weren’t just another travel app, Prior talks about how they actively built a likeminded community passionate about pets, travel and being environmentally conscious. He gets into the bones of the business and how they ended up with an immensely large American use...

Yorick Naeff delves on taking over as CEO of BUX from co-founder, Nick Bortot, to how he’s implementing expansion and bringing Bortot’s vision to life. As a neobroker that operates across Europe, Naeff gets into how culture and regulation have shaped their strategies in other countries and found having people on the ground helped immensely with getting to know their audience. He talks about educat...

As many start-ups grow at a rapid pace so do their teams - Asha Haji highlights the vast differences of a company of ten to a company of 30 and the missing parts that usually end up in a disconnect in relationships. She puts importance on implementing learning and development elements, and providing support and training for employees growing with the business. Giving insight into the advice and le...

Ricky Knox gives a behind the scenes look into what it took to launch a challenger bank during a time where people laughed at the idea of trying to disrupt the banking sector and the giant banks that dominated it. He gets honest on the difficulties of raising money and the challenges faced in getting past the gatekeepers in acquiring a banking license. As a serial entrepreneur and investor, Knox t...

Matthew Hodgson and Amandine Le Pape detail the thought process of creating a product that isn’t just another blueprint of messaging services like Slack and WhatsApp. With a clear goal and audience in mind, it took them by surprise the sudden pivot they made before even launching Element and how this has defined their niche in the messaging matrix market. Hodgson and Le Pape talk about the importa...

Emilie Vanpoperinghe speaks candidly on marketing and branding as well as the growth of Oddbox pre Covid and during Covid. From a point of not seeing the desired growth she wanted, to having a surge of subscriptions that resulted in Vanpoperinghe having to take down the company website for two months during the pandemic. Oddbox has become a staple name in a climate where sustainability is at the f...

Richard Mabey gives an honest account of learning through the process of pitching for funding and how his bullish take on competition has led Juro to recently close a series B round of £23m. Detailing his own experience, Mabey talks at length on the importance of choosing the right VCs and explains how it was his own customers that introduced investors in the United States to Juro.   Mabey is a fo...

Alex Latham talks about the amazing growth Chip has experienced, especially during lockdown and through 2021. From raising an extraordinary £30m from crowdfunding alone, to how engaging with their investors and complete transparency on strategy and risks has led them to having the second largest fintech shareholders community in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. Chip’s investment into marke...

Radha Vyas shares how she was able to grow her business in just three years to have a turnover of over £20m. She had four offers on the table with a £10m Series A round going into lockdown - Covid hit and the offers were pulled, she lost 95% of her business overnight. Five months later the company went into administration. Vyas remortgaged her house and bought back the assets to relaunch the busin...