Startups taking the lead
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Startups taking the lead
WarwickTECH is a student-led angel fund backing founders from Warwick University. We aim to empower students to pursue tech entrepreneurship and innovation.
Welcome to WarwickTECH's March newsletter! Every month, we'll be sharing our top tech stories — including the most exciting things going on in tech, startups, and innovation at Warwick and beyond.
Curated and edited by Cyrus Ma
What’s new with WarwickTECH?
The first online edition of our annual hackathon WarwickHACK was held successfully over the last weekend of February and exceeded 200 participants for the first time! The team would like to thank all participants, judges, Hackathons UK, Primeflow, Envaluate, Warwick Data Science Society and supporters of WarwickTECH for making this impressive feat possible!
On another note, WarwickTECH is also recruiting for a new cohort of student associates. We have opportunities in our partnerships, operations and coding tracks - so no matter what your strengths are, there will definitely be one role just right for you. If you’re a Warwick undergraduate student graduating no earlier than 2022 interested in building a stronger awareness of startups in the technology space, check out the further details by clicking this link here. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis - so make sure to apply early!
What’s happening at Warwick University?
CryoLogyx receives funding from Innovate UK to transform Cell-Freezing Market
CryoLogyx, a University of Warwick spin-out, has recently received £300k in funding from Innovate UK to further their research. CryoLogyx specializes in the cell-freezing market, and aims to introduce a polymer-based innovation that will allow more cells to survive the freezing process.
Warwick research point to risks of third wave of infections
A modelling report from the University of Warwick academics has evaluated 4 different vaccination roadmap schedules, and points to risks of a third wave of infections should non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) be relaxed. Check out this report by clicking on the link here.
Warwick team makes final of Boring competition
A team from the University of Warwick have advanced to the final round of an international competition hosted by Elon Musk’s The Boring Company. Facing the challenge of generating a novel solution to excessively slow tunnel construction speeds (14 times less than the crawling speed of a snail), our engineers have created a 3D design of a drill that aims to meet a snail’s crawling speed. Congratulations to the team, and we wish them the best of luck!
Topic of the month: Startups making their move
Sifted’s shortlist of Europe’s top 30 young venture capitalists
Sifted has shortlisted 30 names within the European startup community, highlighting their investment histories and notable portfolio companies. If you’re interested in learning more about the European startup space from a short, bite-sized article, then this would be a great place to start!
UK Government to push £1bn into fintech startups
The UK government has announced a series of financial and regulatory support measures targeted at increasing growth in the fintech sector. The fintech sector is currently worth an excess of £11bn, and will likely experience accelerated growth following the implementation of these new policies.
OX picks up 3 grants worth £1.2 million
An automotive startup from Warwick has received 3 grants worth £1.2 million to support their research in developing electric vehicles for use in emerging markets. Created with the aim of improving the transport ecosystem in countries experiencing rapid development, the trucks they plan to launch are 30% cheaper per tonne than current diesel trucks over a 20 year lifetime, and is projected to significantly benefit those living in remote villages and townships in the developing world.
What’s new in Tech?
Celebrating Women leaders in tech on International Women’s day
As gender parity still remains a large concern in the workplace, we would like to take some time to celebrate the achievements of female tech leaders. Check out this article which highlights the achievements of some of the many women who have been making innovations in the area of technology!
Australian legislation to make Big Tech pay for news
Australia has launched a world first move against BigTech by mandating that all Big Tech companies must come to licensing deals with news media companies to disperse news on Big Tech platforms. This legislation aims to create a fair remuneration mechanism for news media companies by creating a government arbitrator which will set the rates Big Tech must pay news media companies if licensing deals fail. The legislation has caused Facebook to temporarily remove news for Australian users, resulting backlash from the wider public. Google and Facebook are currently in negotiations with news media companies, and hope to avoid the set rates that will be imposed by the government in the future.
France proposes changes to EU Big Tech regulation
French regulators have been advocating for large changes to the upcoming EU regulations currently being discussed in Brussels. The proposed regulations hope to increase each individual member state’s ability to fine and regulate Big Tech companies, in an effort to punish bad behaviour and empower content policing. Other EU officials worry about the proactiveness of these changes, as the increase in each individual state’s say can potentially fragment the EU’s single market system.
That's all for March, let us know what you thought and if we missed any stories or topics worth including going forward — see you next month!
