A newly-formed COVID-19 Tech Taskforce for Wales brings together leading Welsh organisations to identify new initiatives to support the tech sector during the current COVID-19 outbreak.

With representation from key industry partners, stakeholders and support agencies, the Tech Taskforce will coordinate a dialogue with Welsh and UK Government and business finance institutions to urgently assess the impact on Welsh companies and help shape measures to address them.

Coordinated by Tramshed Tech and supported by a range of key industry partners, including leading tech companies like Amplyfi, Wolfberry and DevOpsGroup, alongside key business finance organisations like the Development Bank for Wales, British Business Bank, Hodge & NatWest banks and sector support organisations like Tech Nation, AI Wales, Cyber Wales, FinTech Wales, Business News Wales, Business in Focus and the Focus Enterprise Hubs.

The  COVID-19 Tech Taskforce for Wales (CV-19 TTW) will act as a single point of contact to represent respective communities of tech, digital and creative industry freelancers, micro-businesses, SME’s, industry experts and finance institutions, alongside some of the key Welsh Primes, like Airbus, Thales, Microsoft and Splunk. With support from the likes of the NHS Informatics Service NWIS, the Cyber Wales Innovation Hub at Cardiff University and the Alacrity Foundation – and leading Welsh SME’s like Awen Collective and Delsion all represented, CV-19 TTW will provide industry-leading insightful opinion, feedback and expertise on cutting-edge technology products and services available across Wales.

Having established open lines of communication with local, Welsh and UK Government, including Welsh Gov, DCMS and the Wales Office, the Tech Taskforce will urgently assess the scale of the short, intermediate and long-term impact on business and work together to help shape measures to address them, acting as a two-way portal to collate and represent the views of the Welsh Tech sector – whilst also feeding high-level government health advice and business guidance into the companies that desperately need it, along with a mechanism to actually access any support funding on offer to Welsh businesses..

The Taskforce is currently conducting a survey around the impact of COVID-19 on freelancers, businesses, SME’s and large organisations. Alongside this, the Taskforce has created a portal compiling a list of resources to help individuals and businesses navigate the range of support available to them.

Mark John, UK Tech Cluster Group/Tramshed Tech said:

“At this most difficult time for Welsh tech businesses, faced with unprecedented challenges, whether in terms of health or finances, it has been so heartening and inspiring to see the response we have had from all sectors of the Welsh tech economy, with a range of partners all looking to join forces in this time of crisis. To witness Wales pulling together to help each other in these desperate times through the creation of this joint Taskforce – it is truly uplifting.”

Chris Ganje, CEO Amplyfi said:

“AMPLYFI is well positioned to contribute to the Tech Taskforce; an initiative that will deliver vital support to many businesses in such unprecedented, challenging times. The Taskforce will bring many prominent Welsh businesses together to support each other going forward. Dedicated to helping society, AMPLYFI has already publicly released its COVID-19 search engine (coronavirusgateway.com) to provide both the public and experts with free access to accurate information on the pandemic. We hope that we can bring our leading deep-tech capabilities to bear through the Tech Taskforce and continue to deliver for the common good.”