The aim of the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech list is to showcase the wealth of talent on the British digital scene; from startup founders, creatives, social entrepreneurs, technologists, venture capital and angel investors to the policymakers and game changers
Diversity UK unveiled the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech 2024 list at a celebratory event in London. The list honours the contributions of British Asians to the UK’s tech industry and highlights leading women innovators in HealthTech and ImpactTech.
The event organised by equality charity Diversity UK marks a decade of championing entrepreneurs in the sector. The sector has not only grown, making the UK the third-largest tech ecosystem in the world and first in Europe, but innovators have focused on the most pressing global challenges; from climate change and health tech to harnessing the power of Generative AI. This year’s theme was innovation, particularly ‘scaling for impact’ (financial, environmental, human & social capital).
The findings of the research commissioned from an independent Cambridge Venture Project (CVP) team, published in the Asians in Tech Impact Report 2024 demonstrate that initiative inspires, empowers, and connects founders; helping them get funding and support.
The CVP team also focussed their research on the healthtech and life sciences sector, finding that nominees in the sector demonstrated two important positive economic indicators. Firstly, the number of years before a healthtech start-up receives their first funding has been reducing, and secondly, healthtech start-ups have been hiring employees in addition to the original founders.
Women have also held their own in the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech list, accounting for 48% of shortlisted nominees in 2024. The representation of women has risen from 21% in 2015 up to a peak of 52% in 2021 and is at 48% in 2024, despite the fact that nearly 23% were new nominees in 2024
“We are doubly pleased to be recognising twenty-seven of the most inspirational Asian stars with the Asian Tech Pioneers Awards”, said Lopa Patel MBE, Chair of Diversity UK, who has helmed the initiative since its inception, “these are individuals at the peak of their tech journey; from being serial venture builders or deep-tech investors to pioneering social entrepreneurs and innovators”.
Asian tech entrepreneurs
Britain loves its Asian tech entrepreneurs; 24% of this year’s list is made up of Startup founders or co-founders; and 29% are in the Business category, incorporating AI, creative industries, fintech and more established corporate enterprises; 16% are Investors, including angel investors, incubators, private equity and venture capitalists. The Healthtech & Life Sciences sector accounts for a healthy 17% and ImpactTech and Greentech sectors a burgeoning and blooming 14% of nominees.
Among the innovators shortlisted in this year’s index were Veena Adityan, Founder & CEO of SmartBell, a company that provides innovative solutions for animal health insights; Sona Chandra, President of AI, Pangea Bio, that harnesses the power of data and AI to enable the scalable translation of nature’s metabolome into medicine; Priya Guliani, CEO of EarthID, a decentralised Identity platform that enables organisations to safeguard, minimise and reuse personal identifiable information; Shakardokht Jafari, the first Afghan woman to earn a PhD in Medical Physics, who developed an efficient and low cost method of measuring a medical dose of radiation and became the CEO of Trueinvivo and Devi Kolli, Co-Founder & CEO of i3 Simulation, a healthcare data company specialising in improving simulation development process using AI, Machine Learning (ML) and Extended Reality (XR) technologies.
Top 5 Categories
In addition to the Chair’s Award (selected by the Chair of the Judging Panel) and Asian Tech Pioneers Awards (selected by the Judging Panel); Top 5 individuals are highlighted in the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech list in five categories. The Top 5 categories for 2024 are:
Business (incl. B2B, B2C, EdTech, FinTech, InsureTech, IoT, Proptech, Retail, RegTech etc.)
HealthTech (incl. Life Sciences, Medtech, Wellbeing and Health-related tech businesses)
ImpactTech (incl AI, ESG, Climate Tech, GreenTech, Energy, Social Enterprises, Tech for SDGs) *
Investors (incl. Accelerator, Incubator, Angel Investor, PE, Venture Capital, Corporate Investor)
Startups (entrepreneurs who have set up in the past 5 years or so)
The aim of the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech list is to showcase the wealth of talent on the British digital scene; from startup founders, creatives, social entrepreneurs, technologists, venture capital and angel investors to the policy makers and game changers. The key objective is to address the perceived lack of diversity in the tech sector by highlighting the business models, innovation, funding and support networks being created by these Asian digital entrepreneurs. Shortlisted nominees not only gain considerable media attention, they also make valuable connections to help fund or scale their business; are part of a network of innovators; can pitch their ventures at Tech Showcases; are recognised in industry publications and go on to win other competitions and awards.
Sponsors on the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech 2024 list include business support network Barclays Eagle Labs; one of the UK’s leading independent suppliers of steel storage containers, Bell Container Ltd, global law firm Eversheds Sutherland and financial planning advisory, Futurum Financial Advice.
The Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech list and Diversity UK are the brainchild of the digital media entrepreneur Lopa Patel MBE, who has long been recognised as an evangelist for STEM and the tech industries in the UK.
