Leading Asian Tech Pioneers honoured in 2021
Twenty-one of Britain’s leading Asian Tech Pioneers were honoured, by equality charity Diversity UK, on the publication of its annual Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech list. The list celebrates diversity in the digital sector with a focus on disruptive technologies and celebrates its seventh anniversary this year.
Among those recognised with an Asian Tech Pioneers Award this year are Ajaz Ahmed BEM, one of the original tech entrepreneurs who founded Freeserve, which was the UK’s largest Internet Company in 1998; Azeem Azhar, Founder of Exponential View, the leading newsletter and podcast on the impact of technology on our future economy and society; Iggy Bassi, Founder & CEO of Cervest AI a thought leader in natural capital, agriculture, and analytics whose climate intelligence (CI) platform raised $30 million in funding in May of this year led by Vinoth Jayakumar, Partner at Draper Esprit, one of the most active venture capital firms in Europe, that has raised a total of £160 million in funding over 4 rounds and made 148 investments. Also honoured were Amit Gudka, Co-Founder of Bulb Energy, a tech-led renewable energy supplier; Ron Kalifa OBE, Chairman of Network International who was invited to lead an independent Fintech Strategic Review for the UK (published in February 2021) at the request of the Chancellor of the Exchequer; Sumanta Talukdar, Co-Founder of Wave Optics, a deeptech startup which developed next generation see-through Augmented Reality (AR) display technologies, that was acquired in 2021 by Snap Inc for over half a billion dollars.
Lopa Patel MBE, list curator and Chair of Diversity UK said: “It is inspiring to see so many Pioneers scale new heights over the past year, which has continued to be challenging for all of us in so many ways. I am delighted that the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech list has marked its seventh anniversary with a stellar list of nominees, including another year with a record number of new nominees (60%) and that we have been able to honour twenty-one amazing Asian Tech Pioneers who have been selected by a judging panel of their own peers.
The Asian Tech Pioneers index now stands at 71 individuals and it is pleasing to see that newer sectors like sustainability and healthtech are now being represented well against categories like business (47.9%) and investors (28.2%). Among the Asian Tech Pioneers list are accelerators, influencers, investors, and VCs whose collective efforts will be really needed in the coming years if Britain is to bounce back entrepreneurially from the impact of the pandemic, but it is doubly thrilling to see women coming through the ranks to reach the top too.”
Women Asian Tech Pioneers recognised for supporting the tech ecosystem include Pratima Aiyagari, Venture Partner at Nauta Capital, which invests in early stage (mainly Seed and Series A stage enterprise software companies) in deep tech domains ; Joyeeta Das, Chair at AI company Gyana and Associate Venture Partner at SuperSeed ventures, working with the best deep tech startups to achieve their highest potential and Deepali Nangia, Co-founder of Alma Angels and Venture Partner at Speedinvest who has been an advisor to female founders in the London ecosystem for 8 years now. Women make up 18.3% of the Asian Tech Pioneers list.
The official list of the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech 2021 was published yesterday by Diversity UK and aims to highlight the ground-breaking business models, apps, funding and support networks being created by Asian digital entrepreneurs. The list addresses the perceived lack of diversity in the tech sector and showcases the wealth of talent that is currently growing the British tech scene. The list also showcases the top five Asians in the UK involved in Business, GreenTech, HealthTech, Investors and Startups, as chosen by expert judges.
To read the Asian Tech Pioneers list visit https://asiansintech.com/asian-tech-pioneers-2021/
