Following the newly signed Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement, the UK’s relationship with the country is set to be further consolidated – and this specifically benefits our tech and digital community. In light of this, The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) has called on our help, alongside growth marketing startup, HdE AGENCY, to support Australian exporters expand into the UK market.
We’re super excited to be utilising our expertise in building local communities and faciliating collaborations to work with Austrade and help Australian startups set up shop here. As experts in tech marketing, HdE will be using their specialist skills, knowledge and network to help connect ambitious Australian businesses, across a variety of tech sectors, to the UK market, starting with Fintech.
Working with the Australian Government
The Engine Shed-based agency is no stranger to working with the land down under. The team currently works with one of Australia’s largest enterprise tech companies, TechnologyOne, to raise UK brand awareness and advocacy, directly impacting the flow of commercial deals across the UK public and higher education sector. With the help of HdE’s marketing services, TechnologyOne was able to reach its ambitious growth goals even during a pandemic with, a record-breaking UK SaaS ARR of AU$7.5m in just 12 months.
It’s exactly this kind of result that led the Australian government to appoint the contract to the South West growth marketing specialists, calling upon the team’s proven knowledge, industry experience, and highly-connected networks within the UK tech market to aid in the UK expansion of Australian businesses.
HdE’s CEO, Ashley Wheeler, explains, “Since HdE AGENCY began, we have supported Australia’s largest technology ERP provider to achieve fantastic success in the UK, hitting record revenues and growth. This excellent work by everyone at HdE has been recognised by the Australian government and has brought us to this exciting opportunity, allowing us to assist more Australian tech businesses to gain UK and EU market entry.
“We’ve been operating in really challenging markets for the past few years with the global context, and we are so proud of this partnership with Austrade.”
Ben Shorock, Managing Director of TechSPARK says, “We’re delighted to be working with Austrade to help Australian tech businesses tap into the UK market. The partnership with Austrade is a continuation of our mission to strengthen our already awesome tech and digital ecosystem here in the South West, and a marker of how much our community has to offer.”
Together we will be providing a variety of support services designed to facilitate successful UK expansion, including:
- 1:1 coaching and advice around key areas such as market and fundraising strategies, feedback on pitch materials, and guidance on potential targets and investors
- Market sector profiles including market and industry intelligence, an overview of opportunities, upcoming accelerator programs and major events.
- A series of deep dive sessions that will cover key topics of interest around doing business in the UK.
- The organisation (in collaboration with Austrade) of demo days and pitch events to help promote the Australian technology companies
- The organisation (in collaboration with Austrade) of physical and/or virtual market visits for Australian technology companies.
The partnership kicked off last week when 11 Series A, scale-up-level Fintech companies flew in from Australia to attend a myriad of events that offered them the opportunity to network with the UK finance market and get together with industry experts, and potential customers and investors. This included the Innovate Finance conference at the Guildhall in London and an industry roundtable with NatWest, Coutts and RBS Group. This first FinTech event was a massive success. The agency look forward to hosting more cohorts throughout the year and welcoming a variety of innovative and inspiring Aus businesses to start trading within the UK.
Shona Wright
Shona covers all things editorial at TechSPARK. She publishes news articles, interviews and features about our fantastic tech and digital ecosystem, working with startups and scaleups to spread the word about the cool things they're up to.
She also oversees TechSPARK's social media, sharing the latest updates on everything from investment news to green tech meetups and inspirational stories.
