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Pitch competition for early-stage startups
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Work, Live, Thrive in the UK
Supporting global talent to work live and thrive in UK tech through our various support services
Discover the steps to apply and begin your journey
Gain access to a global talent alumni network to support your journey
Spotlighting top talent from our Visa Programme
Understand the standards applicants need to meet to be considered for a successful endorsement
Celebrating 10 years of global talent in UK tech
Tech Nation is the official Home Office designated endorsing body authorised to assess endorsement applications from individuals with expertise in digital technology and who want to come to the UK under the Global Talent Visa.Together Tech Nation Global Talent Visa Alumni have contributed to the growth of the UK tech ecosystem, now worth more than $1Trillion.
The Global Talent Visa Alumni network represents a captivating tapestry of cultures, perspectives, and backgrounds. Despite this rich diversity, each member of this exceptional network discovers common threads weaving through their experiences. They are bright, possessing a keen intellect that propels them forward. They are curious, driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge and discovery. And above all, they are ambitious. Ambitious to learn and grow, to evolve into the tech leaders of the future, and to immerse themselves fully in the UK experience.
Each year the UK is proud to endorse diverse, talented and driven tech founders and professionals representing a myriad of different professions and cultures. Our Global Talent Alumni are diverse in experience and nationality. Read our interviews with some of our all-star visa alumni, demonstrating the impact of the visa programme on people’s careers and contribution to UK tech.
In our Tech Nation Global Talent Visa Report we celebrate 10 Years of Global Talent in UK Tech with more all-star interviews and outline how the UK can continue to develop as an attractive destination for global talent.
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Founder & CEO
Quantum Innovation Sector Lead
Nationality: South Africa UK Location: London Company: BX Technologies Role: CTO Industry: Climate Tech Year Moved to UK / Visa Granted: 2015 / 2018 Salary: £150k+
Why the UK? The two things you need to successfully start and scale a tech company are access to talent and capital. Many places have one of those, but finding countries with the combination of both is difficult. The UK has that combination. I moved to the UK to study computer science at UCL. I met my co-founder, started Unibuddy, and it took off from there. The SEIS and EIS tax benefit schemes were hugely helpful. In the early days, all the moneywe raised from angel investors was through those schemes. The UK is also a melting pot of the best talent from around the world – the first 10 employees at Unibuddy were from 10 different countries.
Why London? The number of startups, the amount of capital, and the size and maturity of the market in London is bigger than anywhere else in Europe or the UK. We built a foundation in London that allowed us to expand to the US, and a lot of companies do the same. In London, you have the talent and capital to build up to a certain level and go global from there.
UK Career Highlights I built the first version of Unibuddy for my master’s dissertation. Being able to grow a university project into something that helps three million users across the world and makes a real contribution to the economy is my biggest highlight. And it’s personally rewarding for me to know that we created more than 120 new, highly-skilled jobs.
Advice For Global Talent Founders who come to the UK are surprised by how easy it is to incorporate a company. It takes you 20 minutes online; it’s cheap, everything is very transparent, and the regulations are clear. Plus, the UK is very much a meritocracy. If you come up with the best solution, you’ll be rewarded for it. Start niche, understand your industry and how to reach your customers. Then, you’ve just got to deliver the right product to solve a problem for them. With Unibuddy, we started with a pilot with five universities. They used our product for free, loved it, and converted into paying customers – that’s when we knew we had product-market fit. From there, we spread by word of mouth and very quickly we had almost all the UK’s 160 universities using our platform.
What Can the UK Do More? We could never hire talent fast enough at Unibuddy. We grew from 20 to 100 people in a year and we had to drop the bar at some point; there just aren’t enough people with the skills startups need in the UK. The UK has Monzo and DeepMind, but we don’t have trillion dollar companies like Google or Microsoft coming out of the UK. What’s stopping us? We need the brightest people in AI and tech to study, stay, and build their careers here, and we need to ensure talent doesn’t go elsewhere.
Future Plans? Climate tech is going to be one of the fastest-growing sectors in the next 10 years, and I’m excited to build BX into a big company and leverage AI to help farmers become more profitable by reducing their carbon footprint. The UK is a great place to be for a climate tech startup, because there’s good consumer awareness and the government is setting positive targets towards solving the climate crisis. Once BX has grown to a certain level, I will likely join or start a company that leverages AI to solve a big problem, and I’ll do so in the UK. The government has done well to identify that it should be investing in AI. Making the UK one of the AI capitals of the world, and attracting companies to set up here because of AI regulation, not despite it – that may be the trick to producing the next trillion dollar company from the UK.
Nationality: Belarus UK Location: Brighton & Hove Company: ChestPal Role: Founder / CPO Industry: Health Tech Year Moved to UK / Visa Granted: 2022
Why the UK? I started a medical device startup in Estonia after bringing my coughing baby daughter to a clinic multiple times unnecessarily. I was worried she could be sick with pneumonia, but it turned out to be a post-nasal drip. So, the team and I developed a smart stethoscope. This device can detect abnormal sounds in your lungs that may be indicative of serious respiratory conditions, helping healthcare providers with diagnosis and patient management. In 2022, a UK company called ChestPal acquired the assets of the Estonian company, and so it made sense to come to the UK. The UK offers a balance between a great health tech environment and clinical expertise, and startups are helped by strong investment avenues and government-backed financial incentives, like the EIS. My daughter is now seven years old and she’s so happy here. When she asked me after her first week at school, ‘Mum, can we stay here for good, please?’ I happily told her: ‘Yes, we can!’.
Why Brighton? Don’t think that you have to be in London. ChestPal’s HQ is located in the heart of Brighton, which is known for its creativity and artistic vibe, and I live in nearby Hove, which has a more residential atmosphere, seaside charm, and is also just an hour’s train from London. There are really vibrant tech clusters and jobs outside London, and where I am provides the best combination for both family and business.
UK Career Highlights Since moving to the UK in January, my team and I have successfully launched our main product, ChestPal Pro, in the US. That’s a testament to the UK’s ability to drive forward medical technology on a global scale. We’re also collaborating with researchers from Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust on what could be a breakthrough in respiratory technology. Our goal is to create a future where patients with chronic conditions can preempt severe episodes when possible and for families to confidently differentiate between a child’s common cold and something more serious.
Advice For Global Talent Health tech founders should take full advantage of the UK’s financial incentives for startups and leverage local expertise by collaborating with clinical and research leaders. Take the advice of clinical experts seriously. While their feedback might be challenging, adopting more stringent processes can lead to commercial success and product differentiation. I also found the UK government websites helpful when relocating with family. The data available helped me make informed decisions when it came to choosing areas and schools, and helped reduce the number of unknowns.
What Can the UK Do More? Some visas, like the Innovator Visa or Startup Visa, have quite stringent requirements. Making visas more accessible for skilled professionals would help lower entry barriers and encourage more tech mobility.
Future Plans? ChestPal is like my other baby and my goal is to make it affordable and available globally. Pneumonia is the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide, and one of the indicators of pneumonia is a crackling sound in the lungs, which our technology can detect. I want to be part of the solution to improve respiratory health detection and outcomes around the world.
Nationality: Uganda UK Location: London Company: Eversend Role: Founder & CEO Industry: Fintech Year Moved to UK / Visa Granted: 2023
Why the UK? We’ve moved our company HQ from Paris to London and we’re now in the process of hiring, finding office space, and setting up operations here. The UK is a great place to build a fintech business. We have subsidiary companies in Nigeria, Uganda, and Kenya, but the best fintech talent is in the UK and there’s probably the world’s best regulatory environment for fintech. We wanted to take advantage of that.
Why London? We want to be at the centre of things. London is a global financial capital and a thriving tech ecosystem; it’s the perfect city for what we’re trying to achieve.
UK Career Highlights I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who are like me in London trying to do the same thing. The ecosystem has been so open and accepting and I’ve already been to a number of networking events where I’ve met a lot of super interesting people, potential customers and fellow fintech founders building in the same market.
Advice For Global Talent Be resilient and persistent, and cultivate friendships, partnerships, and communities. There are so many people in the UK to meet with and network with in your industry. The journey is always difficult, but if you deserve to be here, then you’ll make it.
What Can the UK Do More? I love that the FCA has a Regulatory Sandbox that allows you to test your ideas in the market. Any initiatives that can increase access to funding, networking opportunities, housing, and healthcare services for foreigners would be hugely helpful.
Future Plans? Today, we have half a million users. The goal is to build a massive global company, hire a team in the UK, and reach 10 million users in five years. Now, we’re planning to start fundraising and speaking to VCs in the UK and US.
Nationality: India UK Location: Oxford Company: National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) Role: Quantum Innovation Sector Lead Industry: Quantum Year Moved to UK / Visa Granted: 2016 / 2022
Why the UK? The UK Government funds knowledge transfer partnerships to translate cutting-edge research into technology. After my PhD, I joined a space company at the University of Strathclyde and we were awarded an Impact Acceleration Account fellowship to work with various companies to facilitate knowledge transfer. I was able to make my first steps into industry in the UK, while still maintaining my connection to academia and research. The UK also published the first national quantum strategy, which is used as a template by governments around the world. Plus, Innovate UK’s model of bringing together end users providing a service to customers with quantum researchers to focus on early-stage tech commercialisation is unique. I wanted to be part of that and make more early-stage commercialisation of quantum and AI technologies happen. Although the bare investment into quantum by the UK might be superseded by a couple of countries, its unique commercialisation ecosystem backed by a strong research and innovation pipeline combined with its ingenuity, focus on ethics, and open innovation culture, enables broad commercialisation of cutting-edge research initiatives into technology for societal and economic benefit in a holistic manner.
Why Oxford? Each city has its own story. Oxford has its university, it’s close to London, it’s very green with lots of parks, and I like mid-sized cities where everything is close by. I took advantage of the government’s shared ownership housing scheme to get on the property ladder, so we own 25% of our property and pay rent on the remaining 75%. Before Oxford, Glasgow was special, not only because it has such a vibrant space community (outside of California, Glasgow manufactures more small satellites than anywhere else in the world!), but also because of its citizen-centric policies and climate focus. Plus, it’s one of the friendliest cities in the UK!
UK Career Highlights The NQCC is one of only a few national quantum centres in the world. Working to discover use cases that are important to society and getting end users to adopt quantum computing into their business processes – that’s really exciting! Since coming to the UK, I’ve held one of the world’s first space quantum application developer positions and I was part of the technical team that led the development of two of the world’s first AI-powered quantum distribution modules for small satellites. From having had the opportunity to meet giants such as professors Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose, and Carlo Rovelli while researching black holes and quantum gravity in space, to representing Scotland at the Dubai Expo in 2021, to being named one of the most inspirational business women and top technical experts in Scotland in 2022 by Scottish Business Insider among others; my journey has been nothing short of interesting, if a little wiggly rather than a straight line!
Advice For Global Talent The UK is a very multicultural place, so take advantage of that. Be open to new ideas and mingle with as many different people as you can. If you reach out, people are more helpful than you’d expect. The UK also has a strong queer community as well as strong freedom of expression and queer and women’s rights, which is definitely a big strength in the current world. During my seven years in the Uk, and having had the chance to mingle with various generations, I have found our generation especially to be some of the most progressive in the world, and that goes a long way in making people feel welcome.
What Can the UK Do More? If you’re coming to the UK from abroad, you’re alway worried about your family and parents back home. The US has a well-established visa route that allows your parents to join you after working in the country for a certain number of years. The UK can do better on schemes and visa policies that allow skilled foreign nationals to bring over their parents, so we can be there and care for them, reducing distractibility and distress for talent with caring responsibilities in a rapidly ageing and globalising world. The UK also has great work-life balance, but salary packages are significantly lower than in the US. For many people, that’s the only real barrier. Finding a way to increase salaries for skilled people will reduce the brain drain.
Future Plans? Making the workplace more inclusive is something I’m really passionate about. I am a director of the UK Prospero Space Fellowship, which matches undergraduate students to internships and mentors in the business and technical sides of the space industry. I’m also the Founder & Chair of New Voices in Space, which took 200 satellite kits to schools in Scotland and Oxfordshire to provide students with hands-on training in small satellite building. I’m excited to see whether bringing quantum and AI together within an ethical framework will help us solve some of the biggest challenges we face in the world today. I’m looking forward to advancing the NQCC’s innovation strategy, focusing on the applications of quantum in healthcare and drug discovery, financial services, space, climate, and the intersection of quantum with AI.
Speak to our friendly alumni who’ve been successful in the application process here. Please note, this is not official immigration advice.
Once you’ve secured the Global Talent Visa, you can gain access to a valuable network of individuals who have successfully navigated the highs, lows, and intricacies of setting up life in the UK. These experienced guides have been there, done that, and are ready to support you in making a seamless transition.
Connect with active members and get the opportunity to build personal and professional relationships with them through our community events, monthly meetups and slack group.
