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Most recognized for its cloud computing know-how, Amazon Internet Companies (AWS) has additionally carved out a significant place leveraging its huge sources to assist new generations of startups and scaleups.
Whether or not it’s technical recommendation, strategic programmes or useful resource sharing, AWS has supplied a various vary of companies with the essential assist wanted to develop. Among the many firm’s high figures working in direction of this finish is Tricia Troth, head of startups within the UK & Eire at AWS.
On this unique interview, Troth discusses the work of AWS in supporting startups and what she has discovered in regards to the UK’s ecosystem of tech firms from her place.
What function does AWS play in supporting UK startups?
AWS helps UK startups with an unparalleled AI stack, knowledgeable technical recommendation, go-to-market assist, and strategic programmes designed to assist them scale and develop.
We provide enterprise experience and interlock with traders to assist startups fundraise, and thru devoted go-to-market assist, the AWS Companion Community and Market, we additionally assist startups to develop their services and products to new markets, seize potential clients and generate enterprise leads.
During the last 20 years we’ve got helped extra startups launch, construct, and scale than every other cloud supplier, together with UK success tales akin to Deliveroo, Monzo, Starling Financial institution, Synthesia, and Zilch.
Why is it vital for big companies like AWS to work with earlier-stage companies?
If we don’t assist these early-stage firms to scale, Europe loses its aggressive benefit.
To assist this thriving sector to proceed to innovate and compete on a worldwide stage, companies like AWS have an vital play a task in serving to early-stage startups to take full benefit of digital applied sciences.
With 70+ state-of-the-art providers for knowledge analytics, AI and machine studying fine-tuned over 20 years of expertise, AWS has the broadest and deepest answer set to assist UK startups make higher choices sooner and create excellent generative AI functions.
Our scale and partnerships with hundreds of VCs, incubators, accelerators, co-working areas, universities, and others, additionally helps to make sure startups get the steerage, assist, and infrastructure they should construct disruptive companies.
One instance is Tech Nation’s London AI Hub, of which AWS is a founding accomplice alongside Merantix Group, Husayn Kassai (founding father of Onfido), and Techspace.
This public-private partnership unites AI entrepreneurs, researchers, and business leaders to form the way forward for AI by way of group, coworking and impactful occasions, in a single devoted house.
Inspiration can come from anyplace, however it takes greater than an concept for startups to succeed. That’s why we additionally supply world assist programmes like AWS Activate, which assist early-stage companies to get off the bottom with enterprise and technical experience, and credit to check and begin constructing options with little to no upfront prices.
Since its inception in 2013, AWS Activate has supplied greater than $8bn in credit and helped greater than 350,000 startups throughout the globe. This contains UK startups akin to Olio which has leveraged the programme to develop its app on AWS to chop down on waste by permitting individuals to share surplus meals and undesirable home items.
What have you ever discovered in regards to the British startup ecosystem out of your work at AWS?
UK startups are blazing the path in AI adoption and are embedding the know-how deeply into their companies to achieve aggressive benefit from the outset.
In keeping with Unlocking the UK’s AI Potential, a report by Strand Companions commissioned by AWS, AI adoption within the UK has grown by 33% prior to now yr, outpacing the European common (27%).
Whereas giant enterprises are experimenting with AI to make surface-level effectivity positive aspects, startups are embedding AI deeply inside their processes or construct utterly new services and products.
I’ve seen this primary hand with UK startups like BeyondMath which gives a generative physics platform for bodily world simulation, constructed in the marketplace’s largest AI mannequin for real-time industrial scale engineering.
The corporate makes use of AWS’s compute and AI providers to scale coaching and inference of its AI fashions, assist speedy experimentation, and ship quick and dependable physics predictions for purchasers like Components 1 groups.
One other instance of a startup that has embedded AI into its enterprise operations is Motorway, the quickest rising used automotive market, which makes use of AWS’s AI providers akin to Kiro and Amazon Q for code improvement to make it simple to write down new options and performance, to know design choices, and rapidly onboard new engineers.
To proceed accelerating the UK’s AI adoption and assist startups, the UK should proceed to foster its already vibrant funding ecosystem and construct on its present place as a frontrunner in European VC funding.
Our analysis reveals that entry to funding is a key enabler for startups of their adoption of AI and their enterprise progress.
Almost half (48%) of startups mentioned that VC and funding choices have been one of the crucial vital enablers of their progress. 88% of companies reported that authorities assist (e.g., grants) is vital of their choice to undertake AI applied sciences.
How has the arrival of generative AI affected AWS’s work with UK startups?
Generative AI is essentially the most transformative know-how shift in how we work together with knowledge and one another we’ll see in our lifetimes and past. UK startups are reworking industries utilizing AI.
For instance, UK startup Fabacus is disrupting the retail and model/IP licensing industries by supporting firms like Tesco and Hasbro to realize extra with their knowledge.
Fabacus constructed an agentic AI engine utilizing Amazon Bedrock and Anthropic’s Claude that transforms how executives entry essential enterprise knowledge—changing hours of guide evaluation with immediate pure language queries, slicing time-to-insight by 70% and redirecting 25% of operational capability towards revenue-driving actions.
We’re enthusiastic about our momentum with generative AI startups and can proceed to focus our efforts on supporting these founders.
Simply as AWS democratised entry to cloud computing providers, AWS has democratised entry to constructing and utilizing generative AI know-how in order that firms of all sizes, and throughout all industries, and builders of all abilities units can participate on this transformation to develop their companies.
To additional assist startups to drive innovation with generative AI, we additionally launched new programmes and investments.
This features a $230m dedication for startups all over the world to speed up the creation of generative AI functions and the AWS GenAI Loft London which for the final two years has supplied a one-stop vacation spot for in-person engagement for startups and builders to discover ways to use and implement generative AI know-how, stand up to hurry on the most recent traits, and join with a wider group of know-how and enterprise consultants.
We additionally launched the AWS Generative AI Accelerator, which has helped many UK startups akin to Latent Labs, PhysicsX, and Odyssey.
What qualities let you know that an AI startup has actual potential?
We at the moment are at a stage the place nearly all startups can be making use of generative AI to their enterprise in a single form or type. For our 2025 AWS Generative AI Accelerator we honed our focus to assist these startups growing the foundational applied sciences that can outline what’s attainable with AI.
For instance, these which can be exploring fine-tuning open-source fashions, pre-training basis fashions (FM), or offering essential providers within the rising generative AI tech stack that encompass the FM with knowledge preparation, mannequin monitoring, infrastructure provisioning.
For instance, a British firm that took half within the 2025 cohort was Inephany, which helps machine studying groups practice fashions a lot sooner, cheaper, and extra successfully by offering them with AI-powered optimisation options.
The startups we chosen for the programme had validated their answer by way of early enterprise pilots, beta customers, or signed contracts—and are actively working towards compliance, safety readiness, and operational scale. We additionally regarded for startups that had demonstrable income and buyer progress, and funding traction, in addition to a founding group with confirmed AI/ML experience.
