CBI president tells Edinburgh event UK must innovate its way out of crisis

The UK must innovate its way out of crisis, the president of the CBI business group has insisted at a virtual Edinburgh conference.

CBI president and Cobra Beer founder Lord Bilimoria was addressing the Edinburgh-based virtual investor event.

Delivering a keynote address at the EIE20 tech investor event, CBI president and Cobra Beer founder Lord Bilimoria remarked that, “our country is at a crossroads and we must innovate our way out of this”.

He noted that Cobra Beer had lost two-thirds of its sales over lockdown.

Meanwhile, at the same event, techUK President Jacqueline de Rojas said the organisation has seen the demand for digital skills “grow exponentially on the back of Covid-19” while also championing diversity in the tech sector.

EIE20 led off with an investor-only event featuring former Skyscanner chief operating officer Mark Logan, whose Scottish Government-commissioned report on Scotland’s tech sector was published in August.

The main conference included pitches from 50 start-up to scale-up founders pitching for seed funding to series A investment rounds up to £5 million. Pitching companies included hotel app Criton, sensor technology specialist start-up Beringar and ethical finance start-up Soar.

Danny Helson, programme manager for EIE, said: “All our companies did a brilliant job and they got a rare forum in which to pitch to investors from across the globe.”

The conference featured online “pavilions” bringing start-ups, investors, government and advisers together from Germany, the Americas and Asia-Pacific.

EIE has supported nearly 500 tech start-ups and scale-ups since 2008 which have collectively raised over £750 million. EIE alumni companies include FanDuel, Current Health, Two Big Ears, pureLiFi, Float, Speech Graphics and Cyan Forensics.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism.

Subscribe to scotsman.com and enjoy unlimited access to Scottish news and information online and on our app. Visit https://www.scotsman.com/subscriptions now to sign up.

By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Joy Yates

Editorial Director