How private companies are driving innovation

The 2024 UBS Private Companies Showcase brought together industry leaders to discuss the role of AI and other innovative technologies and the impact on the way we live, work and treat the planet.

The most innovative solutions often come from start-ups. As is often the case, start-ups typically attract great talent, are nimble and operate within a structure that fosters collaboration and innovation. Unburdened by the size and inertia of tech giants, they can capitalize quickly on opportunities that escape the notice of hyper-scalers.

Take syd.life, an AI-driven platform transforming preventive health and life quality by leveraging over 1 million scientific papers and advanced proprietary artificial intelligence. “A mega-US retailer tried to build something similar four times”, according to Lorena Puica, CEO and founder of syd.life.

“It's not just money that's needed,” she adds during a panel at the recent UBS Private Companies Showcase. “Talent, context, the start-up spirit – that's what makes the difference. The mega-players lack that agility, but they are increasingly seeking partnerships with companies like us."

We are still in a “massive experimentation” phase with AI, as companies test technologies to find the best solution for their needs, says Ori Goshen, co-founder and co-CEO of A121 Labs, which specializes in natural language processing through AI systems.

AI is surrounded by huge hype – and huge hopes. “The AI space is as hot as it could be,” says Umesh Sachdev, co-founder and CEO of Uniphore, a Silicon Valley-based tech company that uses conversational AI to overcome language differences in business. “It is the biggest disruptor we’ve ever seen. We are in an age of abundance. Companies who use it well will see 30-40% bigger margins.”

But unlocking the power of AI isn’t about adopting the technology for the sake of it, or for fear of missing out. AI’s power lies in its ability to make enterprises more efficient, scalable and profitable – but it must be implemented with care and caution.

Transformative innovation on this scale comes with significant risks. “The biggest question in 2024,” says Vishal Marria, founder and CEO at Quantexa, “is how do you ground this technology in trustworthy data?” The accuracy of the underlying data, and the ability to contextualize it, are fundamental to producing a reliable algorithm.

Cybersecurity is another concern. “AI can’t steal a face, but it can copy it so that the difference is indistinguishable to the naked eye,” says Andrew Bud, founder and CEO of iProov. His company uses biometric tech to protect against identity fraud – an industry that has gained great traction overnight when engineering firm Arup was revealed as having been the victim of a USD 25m deepfake scam in January 2024.

Arguably, the greatest question mark is around quantum tech in AI. The ambition to build a quantum computer that achieves supremacy by solving problems that no other computer can – including “some of the world’s most intractable problems” – is edging closer, according to Ilyas Khan, founder of Quantinuum.

“For the first time in 40 years, we have a quantum computer that cannot be simulated by any concatenation of classical computers,” says Khan. “But we are very, very, far away from commercial application.”

Quantum AI’s potential positive applications are many and varied, ranging from predicting sports injuries – “The injury will cost the club much more than the machine,” says Enrique Lizaso Olmos, co-founder of Multiverse Computing – to unlocking genetic data.

“If you’re looking to invest in a trillion-dollar company in quantum, genomics is where you need to be,” says Khan. “The second area that matters is material discovery for our climate – carbon sequestration, batteries and something relating to photosynthesis.”

Quantum AI could be the game-changer that opens doors that we don’t yet even know exist. But at the root is the need for transparency, accountability and, importantly, speed.

In almost everything we do in our daily lives, we contribute to greenhouse gas emissions: what we eat, the clothes we buy, how we build and power our homes and how we move around our urban environments. The subsequent impact on the climate is forcing a re-think in many industries. The question is: how are companies leveraging technology to reduce emissions?

For investors, this presents an opportunity to identify and support innovators with the potential to become major players in a rapidly changing world.

In the words of Bill Gates, whose Breakthrough Energy initiative has united the private, public and philanthropic sectors to launch new technologies to help achieve net zero, “Innovation is the key to helping all countries eliminate their emissions.”

Two years ago, food tech and agri-tech were the major focus for investors. This space continues to be a hotbed for exciting innovation, with new technologies and processes enabling farmers to grow food more efficiently and sustainably and tackle issues such as water shortage and pollution.

Domestic climate legislation – led by the Inflation Reduction Act in the US, which offers tax credits to green industries – has become a touchstone of political discourse worldwide. This has shifted investor interest towards companies that produce asset-light software in the energy space.

Innovators are finding ways to quantify carbon and methane emissions to hold companies to account. They are devising tech that helps run our homes, cars and cities more efficiently. And they are removing communication barriers to make businesses run better.