West Midlands tech businesses offered access to 'region’s largest business'

Seven senior leaders from major financial, legal and property firms in the West Midlands are offering 42 hours of one-on-one support to the region’s growing tech businesses.

Facilitated by SuperTech, the UK’s only body dedicated to the greater adoption of technology by professional and business services companies, the initiative is designed to help entrepreneurs grow and access a market which in the West Midlands alone generates £28bn gross value added annually and employs more than 343,000 people.

Supported by BNP Paribas Personal Finance, Wesleyan, Bruntwood SciTech, Shoosmiths and Barclays the Connector Series first ran in 2021. The newly expanded 2022 programme will see representatives from Unity Trust Bank and Paragon joining the roster of mentors.

Dr Cristian Gherhes, founder & CEO of AI RegTech start-up Lexyfi, engaged with the Connector Series in 2021, he said: “As a tech start-up, it can be difficult to engage with large corporates and get meetings with key decision makers, so the conversations facilitated by SuperTech’s Connector Series were extremely useful.

“Being able to get direct access and speak to senior management, understand their business needs better, and explore potential collaboration opportunities was incredibly valuable for us. We learned a lot from engaging with businesses through the Connector Series and ended up working with one of the businesses to test our product as part of our private beta.”

Hilary Smyth-Allen, SuperTech executive lead, said: “We’ve had excellent feedback on the first Connector Series from both the entrepreneurs and executives who took part. A key mission of SuperTech is to encourage and promote greater use of technology in traditional business and professional services firms, to help stimulate further economic growth.

“It’s a testament to the incredible business community we have in the West Midlands that we are able to run a programme like this here in Birmingham. It would not be possible without the backing of the executives and entrepreneurs who have been involved and the continued support from the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

• Add me on LinkedIn and Twitter to keep up to date
• And follow Bdaily on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• Submit press releases to editor@bdaily.co.uk for consideration

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →