A Look Back at 2022
Offline meetings 🤝, international adventures 🌍, and learnings from the startup ecosystem 💡
Looking back on the year that’s passed — what a year it’s been! Kicking off 2022 by participating in the Newton Venture Program and meeting individuals from all walks of life working in venture capital, developing and delivering an impact-focused leadership programme with the incredible team at Future Leaders, and supporting founders across all corners of the world, made possible through organisations offering holistic entrepreneurial support to female founders: HerMeNow, With Purpose, and WomenTechNetwork.
While most of these activities were virtual, this was also my first year back at international — offline! — conferences since the pandemic. There’s nothing quite like meeting in person with your team, clients, and partners, and it’s one of the things I’ve missed most. We’ve also taken on exciting new projects at Metta and invited old friends and new connections from around the world to join us on the Metta Talks podcast.
Sharing learnings from the startup world and more about Metta in 2022 ⬇️
Great startup ecosystems still matter
One of the most interesting topics at TechChill in Milan was the role of startup ecosystems as we enter 2023. The pandemic forced everyone to adapt to the virtual way of working and for entrepreneurs, it allowed them to think outside the box when it comes to setting up remotely. Now it’s more feasible to set up a company anywhere — but can you scale a company anywhere? The idea of being remote-first has challenged traditional thinking that innovative ideas can only amount to action within a system that can nurture them.
I’m a big advocate for startup communities because I’ve seen first-hand how a strong network of mentors, investors, and like-minded individuals can move startups toward successful outcomes. Different support is needed at different stages and no matter what tools and resources are available online, access to people is what’s essential for early-stage startup founders.
When choosing where to set up, it’s still worthwhile to think about:
- Where you want to build (parts of) your team — more customer-facing team members should be where key clients are
- Where you can access funding — ‘cross-border’ investing might be increasing but not fast enough, and it’s worth thinking about other sources of investment, be that private or government
- Where various entities — academic institutions, government, accelerators— have created a strong network to work together. Collaboration is key.
Purpose-driven tech is on the rise
Atomico’s State of European Tech 2022 Report identified the emergence of two important cross-cutting themes: deep tech and purpose-driven tech. Purpose-driven tech, addressing UN’s SDG’s is returning to the record it reached in 2020, representing close to one-fifth of total capital invested.
Purpose-driven tech is exciting but how can you tell truth from fact? At the Sifted Summit, Roxanna Varza coined the term “mission-washing” — which much like greenwashing, refers to startups and VC funds using impact work and diversity for marketing themselves rather than doing the work required. That said, many companies are doing the work. One of my favorite Metta Talks conversations in 2022 featured Lise Alm, Chief Strategy Officer at Worldfavor — a Sweden-based SaaS platform that provides solutions including supply chain visibility and sustainability management for businesses. Hear it here on Spotify. I love how Worldfavor is supporting working towards accelerating transparency and empowering sustainable decisions for all businesses and individuals.
Speaking of sustainability, the Metta team was excited to bump into Doug Johnson-Poensgen two years after working together at the ATI Boeing Accelerator (now Aerospace Xelerated). Doug gave an insightful talk on inherited Scope 3 emissions and how Circulor is supporting manufacturers with supply-chain decarbonization. Catch Doug talking about how technology can help businesses utilize supply chains to enable the successful transition to electric vehicles at the Web Summit Maersk pavilion here on YouTube.
Increasing focus on personalised healthcare
Web Summit brought over 70,000 people from 160 countries to Lisbon including friends, new connections, and a chance to meet many of our partners for the first time offline!
Working in the digital health space through Metta’s work with Novo Nordisk in the UK, one of my favourite panels talked about how the personalised healthcare space presents an opportunity to improve healthcare for all citizens. George Hadjigeorgiou, Co-founder of ZOE, and Hamish Grierson, Co-founder of Thriva Health, spoke about the ability of technology to reduce chronic diseases and the importance of moving from ‘sick care’ to prevention through personalised care.
We supported the Novo Nordisk team in launching their Digital Innovation Hub in the UK, in partnership with Link — an innovation and learning hub. Don’t miss our recent podcast episode, where we discuss Link’s startup story, originating in France before becoming a hub for international corporate innovation operating at a global scale — as well as what “open innovation” means to their team.
In reflection, there are many incredible innovators addressing global challenges and it reinforces why we at Metta do what we do — support startups, global businesses, governments, VC funds, and angel investors on their journey to becoming even more innovative and sustainable.
I’ll leave you with this for the new year:
“It’s essential that we remember that innovation has a direction; people decide which challenges are addressed, who is included in the process, and who targeted beneficiaries are.” — Global Policy
Innovation before all is a choice, and I believe we’re on an amazing journey. The Metta team grew to an 11-person team, and this brought new ideas and perspectives. I’m looking forward to seeing where the new year takes our programmes and projects and the new adventures that we’ll embark on — stay tuned!
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For more information about Metta and the work we do, head to our website. Check out our podcast Metta Talks to hear the latest about startups, innovation, and sustainability. The team is also on Twitter — reach out to us @mettatalks.
Want to learn more about Metta? Let’s talk 🗣
Ksenia Kurileva — ksenia@metta.partners | https://www.linkedin.com/in/kseniakurileva/
