This week is a very exciting one for Tech Nation, as we continue our journey and evolve from a truly UK wide organisation to supporting game-changing founders, leaders and scaling companies across international shores.

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Tuesday at the private opening of London Tech Week Connects, the Secretary of State for the Department for International Trade, Elizabeth Truss MP, has announced a future trade strategy for the UK tech sector to help turn the UK into a global tech powerhouse – this includes the launch of an £8m Digital Trade Network (DTN) for Asia-Pacific (jointly with DCMS), to support UK tech businesses to internationalise in this fast-growing region

The objective of the DTN is to rapidly enhance the ability of UK digital companies to export and connect with international customers and investors. It is estimated that the next billion to come online for the first time will be in this region, with the region being of huge strategic importance and a priority market for many of the companies in our Tech Nation cohorts.

Tech Nation’s role will be to work closely with the Department for International Trade to expand our reach, with a new international team of Country Leads, helping to accelerate the growth of UK digital technology businesses while providing links for regional talent and investment into tech clusters across the UK. 

We will pilot three markets initially, with people on the ground in Japan, Singapore and Australia, which will also see companies on our Tech Nation programmes, including Fintech, AI and Cyber, participate in an international mission to Asia-Pacific to support their expansion into the region. Depending on our impact and success, which we will continuously monitor, this support network will expand to other parts of the world.

Thinking globally is the natural next step for Tech Nation – as we pivot to the needs of our companies, many of whom are looking to grow their businesses internationally. Recently, some 80% of our Upscale cohort cited international expansion as their number one challenge. We can help them scale and succeed beyond our national borders.

We are extremely excited at Tech Nation to have the opportunity to work alongside Government on this hugely important initiative. Do please watch this space as we will continue to update you on our progress as we roll out the Digital Trade Network in the coming months. 

The full package of the announcement can be found here.