Share
Cambridge Tech Podcast
Breaking Into Asia: How UK Life Sciences Companies Are Finding Their Next Growth Market
The latest episode of the Cambridge Tech Podcast features a fascinating panel discussion on international trade recorded live at this year’s Cambridge Wide Open Week.
Steven Lynch, Director of International Trade at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), opens with a sobering statistic: whilst only 10% of British businesses export, the BCC's network achieves a remarkable 45%. This disparity represents a significant untapped opportunity. As Lynch points out, "If we increased UK exports by 2%, we could improve UK GDP by 0.6%."
The problem isn't a lack of innovation or ambition; it's a delivery gap. UK founders and scientists often lack the business expertise and market clarity needed to confidently enter international markets. This is where the new trade accelerator comes in.
Rather than offering generic webinars about exporting, the BCC has created something fundamentally different: an end-to-end, process-driven accelerator specifically targeting life sciences companies interested in Singapore.
Singapore might not be the obvious first choice for UK startups - the US typically dominates - but it's positioned as a strategic gateway to Southeast Asia. With a population of 6 million, Singapore punches well above its weight as a hub for healthcare innovation and life sciences.
Jay Sadanandan, a Singapore life sciences expert, highlights the market's unique advantages:
- The Health Sciences Authority recently launched a close collaboration with the UK's MHRA, enabling regulatory expediency for innovative technologies
- Access to world-class clinical research infrastructure and patient populations
- Singapore's ambitious government vision to solve prevention through treatment across healthcare
The 10 selected companies span pre-seed to Series C stages and focus on areas where UK strength aligns with Singapore opportunity: genomics, molecular diagnostics, advanced therapeutics, and enabling technologies like biologic stabilisation. Importantly, companies aren't required to relocate or abandon UK operations. Instead, they use Singapore as a commercial testbed, a lower-risk environment to validate their business model before scaling across Asia Pacific, the US, or beyond.
What's Next?
The pilot launches in September 2026, but the ambitions extend far beyond Singapore. Lynch reveals plans to scale to Hong Kong, the Gulf, and other strategic markets. The ultimate goal? Moving from 15 businesses entering one market annually to 15 businesses entering different markets each month.
For UK startup founders and investors watching the export opportunity, this episode offers genuine insight into how the next generation of British life sciences companies might achieve global scale, and why Singapore might be the launchpad you haven't considered yet.
Listen to the full episode on the Cambridge Tech Podcast to hear the complete discussion, including audience Q&A and practical advice for companies considering international expansion.
Headline sponsor Holden Polestar
Produced by Cambridge TV
#CamTechPod
More episodes
View all episodes
218. Weekly News Drop - 18th September 2026
02:01||Season 4, Ep. 218The weekly Tech news roundup from in and around the Cambridge Tech cluster. Featuring Cambridge Tech Week, CWConnected, Echion Technologies, and Cambridge Enterprise.
217. 10 Years of the Maxwell Centre: Where Cambridge's Deep Tech Future Is Being Built
52:42||Season 4, Ep. 21710 Years of the Maxwell Centre: Where Cambridge's Deep Tech Future Is Being BuiltJames heads to the Maxwell Centre at the University of Cambridge to mark its first decade, sitting down with four remarkable people who between them span the full arc from foundational physics research to frontier AI startups. If you want to understand how Cambridge actually turns brilliant science into world-changing companies, this is the episode to listen to.The Maxwell Centre opened in 2016 as a deliberate act of disruption: a place where academics, industry partners and entrepreneurs could work side by side without walls or barriers. A decade later, it has become one of the most quietly influential spaces in the UK innovation landscape.We hear from:Professor Sir Richard Friend FRS FREng, Founding Director, Maxwell CentreProfessor George Malliaras FRS, Prince Philip Professor of Technology and Director, Institute for Biomedical Innovation (IBI)Loubna Bouarfa, Founder, FactTrace, Sterlina Smith, Global Lead for AI and Society, SAS, andDr Aga Iwasiewicz-Wabnig, Director, Maxwell Centre"You're never going to run out of good challenges to tackle. And if you're in a place like Cambridge where other people are doing their 150% to tackle the problem they're passionate about, it's just impossible to stand still." Subscribe on all major podcast platforms or visit cambridgetechpodcast.com. 🎧Headline sponsor Holden Polestar Produced by Cambridge TV #CamTechPod
216. Weekly News Drop - 11th September 2026
02:22||Season 4, Ep. 216Cambridge Tech Podcast Weekly News Drop - 11 Sept 2026.The weekly Tech news roundup from in and around the Cambridge Tech cluster. Featuring Quantinuum, OutSee, Innovate UK, Empirical Ventures, Pragmatic Semiconductor, Doctor Paul James, Frontier Developments, Disney, Cambridge Science Park, Cambridge Tech Week, Maxwell Centre. #CamTechPodSee less
215. From Scotland Yard to the Blockchain: How Jonathan Benton Is Fighting Back Against the Crypto Fraud Epidemic
34:33||Season 4, Ep. 215This week we sat down with Jonathan Benton, Founder and CEO of iSanctuary, and it is one of the most remarkable founder stories we have heard.In the episode we cover:Why crypto fraud has reached epidemic scale and why only 0.1% of cases ever reach prosecutionHow REKTify works and the world-first legal cases that proved itThe plan to automate at massive scale and become the blockchain equivalent of the banking system's fraud marker infrastructureWhat 30 years of public service actually teaches you about building a company"If you've done 25 years of public service, it never really leaves your blood."
214. Weekly News Drop - 4 September 2026
02:05||Season 4, Ep. 214The weekly Tech news roundup from in and around the Cambridge Tech cluster. Featuring Pragmatic Semiconductor, Mission Therapeutics and NeuraLight.#CamTechPod #CambridgeTechWeek #technology #venturecapital #deeptech #semiconductor #biotechnology
213. Amelia Armour on Why the UK's Moment Has Finally Arrived
39:11||Season 4, Ep. 213We sat down with Amelia Armour, Partner at Amadeus Capital Partners, for one of the most insightful conversations we've had about the state of UK deep tech investment, and the mood is genuinely optimistic.The headlines? The UK's first half of 2026 has been the strongest for venture since 2022, with $17 billion flowing into UK-backed companies. Cambridge unicorns are arriving with real momentum. And the long-standing complaint about scale-up capital? It's finally being addressed.Amelia covers a lot of ground in this one:Why the value in AI has shifted deep into the stack — and what that means for foundersThe pension fund revolution that could transform UK venture over the next decadeWhy Playground Global setting up in the UK is such a significant signalThe non-dilutive funding strategies that are quietly changing the runway equation for early-stage companiesWhat Amadeus actually looks for when deal flow is at record levels — and how to cut throughWhether you're raising, building, or investing, this is essential listening.Subscribe on all major podcast platforms or visit cambridgetechpodcast.com.Headline sponsor Holden PolestarProduced by Cambridge TV#CamTechPod
212. Weekly News Drop - 28 August 2026
02:03||Season 4, Ep. 212This week's Cambridge Tech Pod Weekly News Drop is live 🎙️Hear updates from Arm, IBM, and Cambridge Tech Week.Tune in on Tuesday for our interview with Amelia Armour of Amadeus Capital Partners.Headline sponsor Holden Group PolestarProduced by Cambridge TV#CamTechPod
211. Five Startups. One Stage. Who Wins at CamTechWeek 2026?
14:53||Season 4, Ep. 211Cambridge Tech Week's pitch competition is back, and this year's shortlist might be the strongest yet. James and Faye sit down with four of the five finalists ahead of their head-to-head on the main stage of the Cambridge Corn Exchange on 16 September 2026. It's a special, quick episode, a reunion of sorts: four of the five companies have featured on the podcast before, many as #21toWatch winners. The fifth - an Edinburgh-based AI company - proves that Cambridge Tech Week's reach now stretches well beyond the city.This episode introduces the finalists:Phil Spence, HotHouse Therapeutics (Norwich) - engineering plants to produce entirely new-to-nature vaccine adjuvants. Their target? Replacing QS-21 - with a scalable, less toxic, bioengineered alternative of similar efficacy.Dr Monica Saavedra's, Lambda agri (Cambridge) - an additive embedded into greenhouse paint and polytunnel sheeting that converts damaging UV light into red light, boosting photosynthesis and delivering up to 20% more yield per crop.Sam Kamali, Myonerv (Cambridge) not present on recording - a wearable medical device, to monitor and treat stroke induced paralysis, allowing stroke patients suffering from upper limb paralysis, to regain real-time control of their hand.Ruben Ruiz-Mateos Serrano, Polytecks (Cambridge) - a novel conducting polymer woven into e-textile electrode arrays that map the body's electrical activity in high-density detail - their first product, stages the most common cardiac disease in dogs.George Arden, Xplore Intelligence (Edinburgh) - simulates real operational environments to train and benchmark entire AI agent systems - catching hallucinations and errors before they reach users in regulated sectors like MedTech and logistics.Why Are They Competing?The answer is consistent across all finalists: it's not just about the prize money.Fundraising momentum - multiple founders are mid-round and treating the stage as a high-quality investor touchpointEcosystem reach - Cambridge Tech Week draws a global audience; and creates a deliberate bridge across the UK deep tech communityThe live final is sponsored by Mills & Reeve, and joined by PwC, and Julius & Clark. Judging on the day: Zickie Lim (Partner & Head of VC & Investments, Mills & Reeve), Marilena Ioannidou (British Business Bank), Richard Lewis (Foresight Group), and Emmi Nicholl (Cambridge Angels).Two prizes are up for grabs: Judges' Award and People's Choice Award.Be there in person: Wednesday 16 September, Cambridge Corn Exchange. Tickets at cambridgetechweek.co.uk Subscribe on all major podcast platforms or visit cambridgetechpodcast.com.Headline sponsor Holden PolestarProduced by Cambridge TV#CamTechPod
210. Weekly News Drop - 21 Aug 2026
01:51||Season 4, Ep. 210This week's Cambridge Tech Pod Weekly News Drop is live 🎙️Hear updates from Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, Qureight, Flit, Mantle Space and TR Property Investment Trust.And next Tuesday - tune in for a preview of the pitching companies at next month’s Cambridge Tech Week.Headline sponsor Holden Group PolestarProduced by Cambridge TV#CamTechPod