Like many industries, the manufacturing landscape is transforming. Faced with the challenges and opportunities of industry 4.0, sustainability, market shifts, and workforce decline – making things is not what it used to be.

Discover the top insights from Sixth Sense’s latest fireside chats, where industry leaders and innovators share game-changing wisdom with our program delivery partner, and founder of H-Catalyst, Richard Heggie. Here are some of the key takeaways: Sustainability’s next big win Eva Carranza and Marion Rouzeaud, Hexagon’s Head of ESG & Sustainability and Global Sustainability Director, pointed out the emerging business opportunity to develop full sustainability solutions; that means not only measuring emissions and impact but also helping with reduction planning and decarbonisation. Leadership lessons from Cobra Beer Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer, shared his leadership philosophy: being a leader is about intuition, building a diverse and loyal team, and having an entrepreneurial ‘playing to win’ attitude. Utility trumps novelty Lee Sankey, founder of Door, explored what makes a scalable, game-changing new product: utility over novelty. Products or services should solve specific pain points, address needs, or even create them to connect with customers. The power of an introduction Elaine Warburton OBE, serial entrepreneur and founder, shared tips on securing investment: an introduction is one of the most successful ways to secure funds because it shows that someone else believes in you – leverage your networks. Innovation: luck or skill? Martin McCourt, NED at Tharsus and former Dyson CEO, spoke about how much innovation is about luck: it’s about being prepared for opportunities, fostering an innovative environment, and generating a flood of ideas – but also having a system to decide which are the great ideas to run with. Economic optimism: A new angle Will Hobbs, Barclays’ Chief Investment Officer, offered a new outlook on the economy and the numerous forecasts of doom or boom: treat it as “innocent until proven guilty,” because people are always innovating and growth is the norm, not the exception. Redefining victory Olympic rower, Cath Bishop, discussed her book “The Long Win,” which puts forward a new definition of success: it’s about purpose over winning, growth over reward, and collaboration over competition. Shaping the future of our ecosystem These insights from our fireside chats are helping to shape the future of manufacturing, driving innovation and success within the Sixth Sense ecosystem. Thank you to all participants for your invaluable contributions.

In the race to secure funding, track down the best talent, and stand out on a limited budget, dedicating precious energy and resources to public relations might not top the startup to-do list. But what if we told you this is a rookie error? That a PR and content strategy should be a priority, with the power to move the dial on the above and more? With no legacy to lean on, PR and content marketing can help to raise your startup’s profile and establish a competitive edge; shaping how people see your brand, making them care about your mission and vision, attracting top employees and investors, and building trust and credibility with customers. But where to begin? Whether you’re already in the know or just getting started, we’ve put together a few tips and tricks to help you get the ball rolling with PR and content marketing for your startup. FAQs What is a press release? A press release is a written communication that shares newsworthy company statements or updates with the media. The ingredients: a snappy headline, concise and compelling copy, a clear message, and engaging quotes. What is a press kit? This is an essential tool to help stakeholders better understand your company. A good press kit includes a range of assets that share more about your mission, product/services, team, coverage, social media, and much more. What is a pitch note? In order to secure press coverage, you’ve first got to grab journalists’ attention – this is where a punchy media pitch comes in, laying out: What’s the proposed story? What points would it cover? Why is it of interest? And why now? What is an op-ed? This is a 600–800-word piece that shares your point of view on a newsworthy topic which relates to your company’s mission, vision, or values. It should be opinionated, informative, evidence-backed, and not overly self-promotional. What are trade publications? And which should we target? These are niche publications that share sector-specific news for a target audience of industry stakeholders. Focus on the outlets that your specific stakeholders read and those that publish similar stories to the one you’re pitching. Guiding principles It’s all about the narrative When you’ve spent years developing a product, it’s easy to get stuck in the weeds of technical details when trying to engage stakeholders. Though important, these complexities aren’t going to resonate with a broad audience. To cut through the noise and grab attention, you need to develop an authentic and engaging narrative that communicates your unique values, mission, and vision. Next, you need to weave this messaging through everything from your press kit to your pitch notes to help your startup stand out. Diversity and consistency are key Beyond your origin story, it’s important to garner a following around your startup’s evolving story. So, once you’ve nailed your narrative, you want to get your company’s offering in front of as many eyes as possible – generating buzz, maximising visibility, and reaching new audiences. This can

Last year saw a sharp drop in global venture capital funding for startups, with Crunchbase finding a five-year low in VC activity in 2023. Manufacturing was one of the higher performing industries in terms of investment, seeing less than a 20% drop, but the sector still experienced a year-on-year fall in funding. Is this the new normal? How can manufacturing startups maintain a competitive edge to secure funding? What are the technologies and innovations that will bring investors back? These are some of the pressing questions we explored at the Sixth Sense Summit in London earlier this year, including during a roundtable session on how to fundraise in a challenging climate. Participants in that discussion included Jean-Laurent Pelissier, Managing Director, Head of Enterprise Software at HSBC Innovation Banking UK – a subsidiary of HSBC which supports the innovation economy, providing commercial banking services, expertise and insights to the technology, life science and healthcare, private equity and venture capital industries. We spoke to him to find out more about what the future fundraising landscape may hold. What was behind the worldwide drop in VC funding across all industries last year? What impact did this have on the innovation economy? Jean-Laurent Pelissier: I think 2023 was a reset year for the VC industry and the innovation ecosystem. People had to get comfortable with new valuations and new ways of operating, with a much greater focus on efficiency. When the markets took a dive in 2022, we saw a lot of companies pause and rethink how to manage their business and boost efficiency. We also saw investors re-evaluate how to value companies and become cautious about deploying funding, focusing equity on existing portfolios instead. However, I think this has now stabilised. Are you optimistic about the future of startup fundraising? Can we expect 2024 to see a marked improvement or are we in a ‘new normal’? Jean-Laurent Pelissier: I don’t think last year is where we're going to be forever. From an economic perspective there's more stability (at least in Europe and the US) with more bullishness from investors to deploy funds and some early green shoots of positivity in the public market [IPO markets reportedly showed early signs of recovery at the end of Q1 this year]. So from what we're seeing on the market, I am cautiously optimistic for 2024 – I expect to see more activity. In terms of the new normal, I think companies are coming to terms with embracing valuation resets. We saw companies listing in the public markets demonstrate this approach, which I think reflects the broader ecosystem’s new reality. When this trickles through I think we’ll see more funding rounds. Forbes recently listed 3D printing, smart factories, sustainability, advanced materials, AI and blockchain as the top six innovative opportunities for manufacturing startups. Do you agree this is what investors are looking for? Jean-Laurent Pelissier: Against the backdrop of companies needing to become leaner and more efficient, I think AI is going to become increasingly important. Many

Sixth Sense is all about looking to the horizon and around corners, exploring the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow. But that’s not to say we don’t also recognise the need to look back from time to time to reflect on what we’ve achieved so far. No different from the learning journey of our Sixth Sense startups, each cohort teaches us something new, serving as a vital jumping-off point to iterate, optimise, and evolve — taking the programme to the next level. So as our third challenge focused on sustainability and digital reality in manufacturing draws to a close, let’s take a moment to reflect on our third cohort – Zaptic, Flexxbotics, Acerta, Launchpad, RVmagnetics, TOffeeX, Dessia, and Rafinex – as well as the dynamic Sixth Sense Summit in London this year. We sat down with Milan Kocic, the head of Sixth Sense, to get his take on the key learnings, reflections, and insights from our third pioneering programme and what’s in store for the next chapter. What are your main reflections from the third cohort? Milan: At Sixth Sense, we use this “one plus one equals three” expression to underline how we help Hexagon and startups join forces to create more value for both companies and for customers. Our third cohort exemplified this approach more than ever, with many of the startups embracing the programme’s core purpose: connecting the dots between Hexagon and their transformative solutions—building a joint idea. Sandy Reid, Zaptic’s CEO and co-founder, underscored this at the Sixth Sense Summit, highlighting how Sixth Sense opened doors to explore synergies between Zaptic’s technology and Hexagon’s manufacturing solutions. We’re now looking for ways to lay the foundations for these strong connections from day one; hosting a pre-cohort pitch day to get to know cohort members better, as well as improving post-cohort efforts to create better value for both Hexagon and startups afterwards. What kind of impact has Sixth Sense had over the last few years? Milan: I think the best ratification of Sixth Sense’s impact is the fact that many different divisions within Hexagon are now asking to launch their own cohorts. There's also a great deal of interest from inside the organisation about many of our start-ups and where there might be opportunities for collaboration. This has been exemplified by the number of partnerships our finalists from across the cohorts are forging between Hexagon and other industry leaders. One of note is the landmark partnership between Hexagon and the winner of our second cohort, GelSight. Another is that of ETQ – a part of Hexagon and the leader in enterprise quality management solutions – and Augmentir, also from our second cohort. Interest in our cohort members’ technology shows in other ways, too, with cohort two members Threedy securing $10.4 million in a recent Series A investment round and CASTOR landing a grant from the Israel Innovation Authority. What makes Sixth Sense different from other accelerator programmes? Milan: I think Sixth Sense’s point of

Despite progress made in recent years, women are still underrepresented in the manufacturing industry. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2023, published by the World Economic Forum, women account for around 32% of the global manufacturing workforce. The proportion is even lower in engineering roles, as found in the 2021 UNESCO Science report, especially in fields driving the fourth industrial revolution, such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing, and more. As a result, women are missing out on well-paid jobs of the future, and the manufacturing industry is struggling to keep pace with the substantial demand for STEM talent. This issue was discussed at a roundtable held at the recent Sixth Sense Summit titled Improving Female Representation in Manufacturing. It brought together experts from the field of manufacturing and technology – Russ Shaw CBE, Founder of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates, Marion Rouzeaud, Global Sustainability Director at Hexagon, Madlen Nicolaus, Chief Marketing Officer at Hexagon AB, Melan Kocic, Head of Sixth Sense, Hanadi Jabado, Managing Partner at Sana Capital, Kate Willsher, COO at IFM Engage, Zoi Roupakia, Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, Elizabeth Donnolly, Chief Executive Officer at Women's Engineering Society, Neo (Mkwebane) Chatyoka, Founder at Uhuru Botanicals, Eleanor Baker, Women Entrepreneurs Programme Lead at Inclusive Business by Lloyds Banking Group, Anne Marieke Ezendam, Co-Founder and CEO at SigniGene, Suki Fuller, Co-Lead at Tech London Advocates Women in Tech and Natalia Campanero, Entrepreneur in Residence Programme Manager at the Royal Society. In this article, we have shared some of the insights we gathered on why the gender gap in manufacturing and technology persists and consider the strategies that could bridge this gap by empowering women and fostering inclusivity. Navigating the challenges: roadblocks to diversity Attracting diverse talent in manufacturing has been a longstanding challenge. Outdated stereotypes of production – often associated with manual labour rather than advanced technology – have proved persistent, and the industry has not always catered to graduates, particularly women. Modern manufacturing is nonetheless entering a new industrial revolution driven by cutting-edge digital technology. It requires highly skilled workers to operate state-of-the-art machines and design innovative products that keep up with rapid technological advancement. One reason for the lack of awareness of this positive shift is the failure to communicate the value of opportunities in the industry to a wide audience. According to the Advancing Women in Manufacturing report by the Institute of Women’s Policy Research, more than half of women who applied for jobs in manufacturing learned about the job from their family and friends. Word of mouth may be an effective type of recruitment, but it often replicates the primarily male profile of the current workforce. A lack of female role models has also acted as a deterrent, particularly among engineers. Try a simple test – search for “engineer” pictures online, and you will mostly see images of men. Public perception of the job still holds on to outdated notions, limiting diversity and hampering the industry's

Hexagon's Manufacturing Intelligence Natalie Tellis-James attended the Sixth Sense Summit this year – read her insights below. Walking into London’s CodeNode for the Sixth Sense summit, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Although we’ve never promoted giving the start-ups a cash prize, I still half expected to see Milan Kocic, Head of the Sixth Sense programme, standing on stage holding a supersized cheque, but that couldn’t be further from what happened. I arrived at 14:30. The main event wasn’t due to start for another hour, but the room was already filling up, humming with conversation. Each of the eight start-ups had a small stand with literature and products, so I walked around to try to get myself more familiar with what was to come. The room we were in was surrounded by impressive glass offices, each filled with people deep in discussion. Round tables were underway, covering a mix of topics like improving the representation of women in manufacturing and supporting CSR initiatives in a challenging climate. The topic of sustainability featured heavily throughout the day. Each cohort is challenged with a specific topic at the start of the programme, for cohort three this was “Building a sustainable manufacturing future” and “Smart digital reality for collaborative manufacturing.” Time for the main event. I got myself seated and awaited the arrival of the panel of judges, familiar faces from across Hexagon, hand-selected because they know our business and solutions offering inside out. Lights, camera, action! Each of the cohorts had four minutes to pitch their idea to the judges. Four minutes!! Just about enough time to make a cup of tea in my household. Each of the eight told their story, the gap in the market they could fill and how our support can help them. Again, not talking about money – the winner is promised our time, our resources, our knowledge base – all more valuable than a single cash sum. What stuck out to me during each of the eight pitches is how well-connected we already were. It felt like we were already working with the solutions, there was a clear connection between what our division stands for, what it’s trying to achieve and the mechanics we use to do so. It felt like they were part of us, progressing our message and highlighting real-life impacts for our customers. I sat listening, glad I wasn’t on the judging panel with the impossible task of choosing one company to continue a relationship with. In fact, this seems it wasn’t a possibility for the panel either, who at the end of the day announced joint winners Zaptic and Flexxbotics and runner-up Acerta. This wasn’t the only surprise for the day as Milan took to the stage to announce a new Global Partnership with Hexagon and GelSight, Winner of Sixth Sense cohort two, further proving the opportunities for winners are endless. So what’s next? The cohort winners will have access to our extensive resources, global footprint and our comprehensive products and solutions to help them

Sixth Sense Summit: Exploring the manufacturing innovations of the future From mass production to 3D printing, bottlenecks to blockchain, and automation to autonomy – making is not what it used to be. The fourth industrial revolution – or Industry 4.0 – is well underway, and with seismic technological, economic and societal shifts ongoing, the manufacturing industry is at the forefront. And it was the future of manufacturing that was on display at the Sixth Sense Summit, held in London on February 7th – through a pitching competition to determine the winner of this year’s Sixth Sense programme, a technology exhibition, and a series of discussions with industry leaders. Over the past three months, eight startups in our third cohort have been working alongside leaders in Hexagon’s manufacturing intelligence division to evolve their ground-breaking solutions to help solve some of the sector’s biggest challenges – specifically, how we drive a more sustainable future. The prize for the winner? An exciting opportunity to partner with Hexagon on developing a joint solution, leveraging both organisations’ technology. Announcing our winners After a high-quality set of pitches in front of a live audience of 150 entrepreneurs, experts and industry leaders, Acerta was announced as our runner-up, with Zaptic and Flexxbotics chosen as the joint winners. With Flexxbotics’ technology enabling robot-driven manufacturing for tomorrow’s autonomous industry, Zaptic’s connected worker platform empowering frontline worker productivity, and Acerta’s predictive quality solution providing line engineers with invaluable real-time analytics and insights – their solutions are pivotal to building a smart, sustainable and collaborative manufacturing future. Our thanks and congratulations also go to all of the other fantastic cohort three members: ToffeeX, RVmagnetics, Rafinex, Dessia, and Launchpad – these companies exemplify the power of technology as a force for good and we very much look forward to continuing working together. Addressing industry challenges and finding opportunities In addition to the pitching finale, the summit also explored some of the manufacturing industry’s key opportunities and challenges, through a series of roundtables that explored female representation in the sector, the fundraising landscape for startups, and how we scale spin-outs to maximise innovation; as well as a main stage panel discussion on the innovations driving manufacturing to net zero. Building on Sixth Sense’s legacy of connecting the next generation of innovators with Hexagon’s industry-leading technology – such as the recent partnership between cohort two member Augmentir and ETQ – this summit saw another powerful partnership announced, this time between Hexagon and GelSight, the winner of the second cohort. What comes next Sixth Sense is about seeing round corners – identifying solutions where others may not, to solve humanity’s biggest challenges. After yet another successful Sixth Sense programme, we want to thank our incredible third cohort for their dedication and ongoing commitment to pushing boundaries in manufacturing. The third Sixth Sense challenge may now be over, but true to our mission, we already have our sights set on the horizon with our next programme. If you’re interested in tackling tomorrow’s challenges

The culmination of the Third Challenge – the Sixth Sense Summit in London – is coming up in just one week! Date: Wednesday 7th February 2024 Registration: 2.30 pm, where you’ll have a chance to explore the exhibition Panel discussions and pitching competition: 3.45 pm-5.30 pm Winner revealed: 6.00 pm Networking reception: 6.00 pm-7.00 pm Location: CodeNode, 10 South Pl, London EC2M 7EB The event will host 150 industry leaders from across manufacturing, technology, engineering and more, bringing founders and funders together to connect for an afternoon of exhibitions, roundtable discussions, on-stage content and networking. The culmination of the event will happen in the evening, with Sixth Sense’s third cohort of start-ups pitching their groundbreaking solutions and competing for the chance to build a long-lasting partnership with Hexagon. Register to attend the event here if you haven’t already to secure your spot as the Sixth Sense Summit countdown continues! Sixth Sense Summit Program Highlights 14:00 – Roundtable Discussions Please note that you can join the roundtables by invitation only. Please email us at HexagonSixthSense@wearesevenhills.com if you want to express an interest in participating. Roundtable 1: Improving Female Representation in Manufacturing Host: Russ Shaw CBE, Founder of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates Guests: Senior representatives of Hexagon, Lloyds Banking Group, EngineeringUK, University of Cambridge, Women's Engineering Society, TLA Women in Tech and more. Discussion: Women account for 26% of workers in UK manufacturing, earning on average 17% less than their male peers. And the picture is no better abroad. At a time when investment in the sector is falling, and many traditional manufacturing processes are being superseded by technology – another male-dominated sector – this roundtable explores the steps required to increase female representation in the industry. Roundtable 2: Fundraising in a Challenging Climate Host: Elaine Warburton OBE, Founder & NED ReadyGo Diagnostics Guests: Senior representatives of Industrial Innovation Venture Fund, UK Business Angels Association, Dawn Capital, Hoxton Ventures, EIT Digital and more. Discussion: A sharp fall in fundraising activity in 2023 highlights the challenging environment facing early-stage companies today. This roundtable will bring together both funders and founders to discuss how we address and overcome the barriers to secure investment and how startups themselves can ensure that they stand out from the crowd when funding is hard to come by. Roundtable 3: Spotlight on Spin Outs Host: Ana Avaliani, Director of Enterprise and Sustainable Development at the Royal Academy of Engineering Guests: Senior representatives of AMRC, London Space Innovation Centre, Scaleup Institute, City, University of London and more. Discussion: Spin outs play a crucial role in the UK's ambition to become a 'science and technology superpower.' With the investment of £5.3bn in 2021, the UK stands as the second-largest hub for spin out investment globally, behind the US. Despite this success, challenges persist in optimising the entrepreneurial potential of the UK's top-tier universities. This roundtable will look at solutions to those challenges, including intellectual property management, securing funding for proof-of-concept and fostering entrepreneurial learning. 14:30 – Registration,

Our motto: “Everyone may optimize a product design, the true challenge is doing so safely, at a high quality and economically fast enough so that it sustainability scales with profitability.” Our mission? To build a place where everyone can leverage the world’s best-in-class computational and mathematical innovations to create novel, valuable and sustainable products. Who are we? The biggest problem in advancing design engineering is estimating and managing risk. Bad designs are costly, driving 80% of a product’s lifecycle costs & 70% of its environmental impact, while the risk of failure is ever present for products that face billions of unknown factors and conditions when they are used in real-life scenarios. By developing next-gen optimization algorithms for engineering design, Rafinex provides engineers with realistic digital tools to help manage risk, tackle the cost of ‘bad’ or unoptimised designs, and generate optimal designs they can trust in real-life operations within minutes to hours. Rafinex’s technology… Is built into a SaaS software product called “Möbius” Is used by OEMs in the automotive, tooling, aerospace, defence and white goods industries Allows engineers to go from a coarse idea to a fully validated design rapidly Manages and quantifies costly risk factors Enables engineers to optimize with confidence, making fast and informed decisions Helps design high-quality, better-performing, trustworthy, robust, efficient, and resilient products Helps reduce waste of materials, energy consumption, and production resources Enables sustainability to become profitable at scale Helps capture increased value along the product lifecycle The lightbulb moment? Rafinex emerged from a drive for excellence in digital engineering. The founders all have deep backgrounds in advanced numerical methods of academic research. However, when transitioning to industry, we were met by capability limitations which we knew had already been solved at world-leading academic institutions. This led to us creating Rafinex as a spin-out from the WIAS institute in Berlin, quickly gaining automotive OEM customers and maturing cutting-edge optimization algorithms in an industrial setting. Why did we apply for Sixth Sense? Rafinex cannot thrive in isolation. Our solution specifically addresses the inclusion of real-life variability and input data from other digital engineering software solutions. Hence, there are synergies to closely integrate into the digital software toolchain of the ecosystem to provide better and more value to every stakeholder. Sixth Sense is an excellent platform to demonstrate what joint integration can achieve by showcasing a real-application demonstrator design, as well as how the digital tools and IoT sensors from Hexagon can be interconnected with Rafinex. Where do we hope to be in five years’ time? We are in the process of transitioning from a startup to a scaleup following the successful maturing of our core technology components. In five years' time, we aim to expand our customer base worldwide in both our current active sectors as well as new industrial sector applications. We strive to be known for design optimization excellence. Which emerging technologies excite us? The advent of mixed-manufacturing methods is very exciting as it opens the doors to new design freedoms that have

Our mission? To empower industrial worker productivity in an age of automation and digitisation How? By connecting workers with real-time insight and context-specific instruction – guiding them on what to do, when to do it and how to do it. A big part of this

Our mission? Enabling the understanding of the digital thread for every vehicle. We help manufacturers understand complex production data better, predict quality issues, and accelerate root cause analysis. Who are we? ​​With manufacturing operations becoming

Our mission? Empowering tomorrow's engineers with AI. Who are we? We believe that automation is the main challenge in engineering, so we’re developing an AI-based platform that allows engineers to structure and leverage their knowledge – assisting them in everyday

Our mission? To help manufacturing clients measure data in challenging environments using the world’s smallest passive sensors, known as MicroWires. Who are we? An R&D-driven company with proprietary sensing technology that is able to “mine” data in conditions that

The mission of Augmentir is “to empower workers to do their best work”. A member of Sixth Sense’s second cohort, it is the world’s leading connected worker solution provider. We sat down with the company’s Vice President of Strategic Operations, Chris Kuntz, to hear more

Our mission? To enable robot-driven manufacturing for the future of autonomous industry. Who are we? We believe that robots are set to take centre stage in industrial environments, and we are at the forefront of enabling robot-driven manufacturing that includes autonomous

Our mission? Manufacturing made easy – using AI and advanced simulation technologies to automate and revolutionise the future of manufacturing. Who are we? Launchpad is developing AI-powered automation for product assembly systems. We automate and

Who are we? Founded in 2019 – with eight nationalities represented – TOffeeAM stands for ‘Topology Optimisation For Fluids Engineering for Advanced Manufacturing.’ TOffeeAM’s cloud-based physics-driven software for manufacturing design helps engineers innovate and

Sixth Sense has announced the nine manufacturing startups chosen for its third cohort at the Showcase Day event on the 20th of September. The selected companies were chosen from a highly competitive pool of applicants, distinguishing themselves with groundbreaking

As well as speaking to the Hexagon team and working with them to hone their products and pitches, the Sixth Sense cohort also gets to sit in on a number of fireside chats with seasoned professionals from the worlds of entrepreneurship and technology. One such person is Elaine

Sustainability is set to be a big topic for our next cohort as it is one of the two challenge areas set by the team – the other, if you need a reminder, is digital reality. It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that sustainability is high on the agenda. One fifth of the world’s carbon emissions

Sixth Sense offers innovative start-ups a range of opportunities and benefits if they join the programme. Central to this is the opportunity to become a part of Hexagon’s Nexus – a platform for some of the world’s most advanced manufacturing technology, accessed by our

We’re delighted to announce that the next Sixth Sense challenge has been revealed and we’re open to applications. Our next cohort will focus on two main themes: Building a sustainable manufacturing future Smart digital reality for collaborative manufacturing Read this blog to

We are delighted to announce Martin McCourt, Elaine Warburton and Chris Varley as the first Sixth Sense Senior Program Advisors. Renowned in their respective fields, they will be an invaluable addition to the team, helping us to build new partnerships with the next generation of innovators, share knowledge and resources, and scale solutions that accelerate progress and push the boundaries of design, manufacturing and engineering. Over the coming months, Martin, Elaine and Chris will work closely with the Sixth Sense leadership team to help evolve the programme and identify how we can reach new partners and inspire diverse cohorts of startups to participate in future challenges. Senior Program Advisors will also participate in select events with each cohort to provide expert advice on scaling their business. Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence designs solutions that empower an autonomous future. The Sixth Sense Senior Program Advisors' multidisciplinary expertise will support this mission. It will help Hexagon's Sixth Sense accelerate innovation by building deep connections with the broader global start-up ecosystem. Martin McCourt Martin McCourt was the CEO of Dyson for 15 years. As CEO, he devised and implemented a strategy that transformed the company from a single-product, single-market producer into one where 80% of the business came from over 60 markets. Martin was directly responsible for establishing Dyson subsidiaries in the USA, Japan, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Currently, Martin holds non-executive positions in multiple companies in the manufacturing sector, such as e-bikes motors producer FreeFlow Technologies, the global leader in outdoor cooking Weber, and advanced machinery and robotics firm Tharsus. Martin says of joining the Sixth Sense advisory board: “Scaling up a business can be immensely rewarding as well as challenging. I have been working with inventors for many years and still get a great buzz from helping them to achieve their dreams. Working closely with the innovators selected by Sixth Sense promises to be a lot of fun”. Chris Varley Chris Varley has led new business and product creation efforts for several major corporations, including AT&T, CompuServe, Prentice-Hall, and The Walt Disney Company. In his current role as a Principal with Goodyear Ventures, Chris focuses on mobility and sustainability-related investments that enhance Goodyear's products and services. A two-term Generation Foundation Fellow for Sustainable Development and former Vice President of NorTech, the Northeast Ohio Technology Coalition, Chris played a critical role in the early development of the clean energy movement in Northeast Ohio. Chris says: “Sixth Sense has an impressive ability to connect early-stage startups with large organisations at the right time and with the right people. They enable innovators to work together in an atmosphere of trust and confidence, and I look forward to supporting that mission.” Elaine Warburton Elaine is an entrepreneur, innovator and investor who previously judged our first Sixth Sense cohort. With a background in healthcare, she also co-invented several innovative devices that are disrupting the diagnostics and digital health markets, driving the democratisation of healthcare. “I was privileged to judge the inaugural Sixth Sense cohort. As someone who loves

As an official partner of Sixth Sense, Unknown Group supports Sixth Sense with sourcing and reaching suitable start-ups across Europe. In February 2023, it hosted the inaugural Sixth Sense Summit. We spoke to chief commercial officer, Jeroen van den Bosch about all things impact investing…

Following a decade or so of heralding the 4th industrial revolution, it seems it’s time for a change in direction. This was certainly evident at last month’s Hannover Messe, the annual industrial trade fair – where talk of industry 5.0 was rife. This next phase of industrial

The inspiration from everyday life When MIT professor and neuroscientist Ted Adelson had his daughter, it changed his life far beyond the usual sleep deprivation. Professor Adelson, one of the world’s experts in human and machine vision, became obsessed with touch. “His whole

On International Women’s Day we want to celebrate some of the amazing women working at Hexagon. Unfortunately the world of smart manufacturing is still heavily male-dominated. But we’re proud to say we have incredible female leaders driving our company forward and helping

We caught up with Jan Büchsenschütz (right), co-founder and CMO of RIIICO to see how they are doing since co-winning the first cohort. Jan! Great to see you. Tell us what happened after you were announced as the joint winner of the first Sixth Sense Cohort… I think two importa

For an innovative start-up, the chance to work closely with an established company presents a huge opportunity. Large corporations have resources and they have customers – two things that are often in short supply for young companies. Of course the corporation has much to gai

The culmination of our second challenge, the Sixth Sense Summit, took place on 01 February in the Hague at Unknown Group’s recently opened Titaan innovation hub, with 3D tactile sensing technology startup GelSight securing victory. Over 150 members of the European start-up community, investors and manufacturing experts attended the event to participate in roundtables, meet-ups, networking and exhibition, and, of course, hear the pitches of Sixth Sense's brilliant finalists. The Summit began with an introduction to the event from moderator Michael Hayman and Head of Sixth Sense Milan Kocic before a welcome to our judges and further information on the venue from Unknown Group CEO Hendrik Halbe. This was followed by a panel discussion exploring the concept of sustainable manufacturing – hosted by Richard Heggie, founder and CEO of H Catalyst. Ana Avaliani, Director of Enterprise and Sustainable Development at the Royal Academy of Engineering, shared an overview of the broader ecosystem around sustainable production and highlighted a few cutting-edge technologies able to make a positive impact. Next, Abhishek Sengupta, Vice President of Portfolio & Strategy at Hexagon MI and Marion Rouzeaud, Global Sustainability Director at Hexagon MI, described Hexagon's approach to sustainability and how the company plans to develop its eco-friendly practices in the future. Finally, Milan Kocic and Jeroen van de Bosch, CCO of the Unknown Group, shared their perspectives on whether start-ups could help to drive more sustainable practices in the manufacturing industry. The discussion on stage was followed by a Q&A with the audience, who asked how consumers can help to steer the industry towards net zero, and lower waste and pollution, by making sustainable choices. Insightful conversations continued in the breakout rooms. In a series of roundtables, the guests of the Summit explored how to measure start-ups' impact on promoting sustainability, talked about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the industry, and discovered the foundations of building successful ventures. Those attendees, who did not join the roundtables, had an opportunity to make new connections while exploring the Sixth Sense Summit exhibit. Multiple stands demonstrated the recent Hexagon technologies and the innovative solutions built by our second cohort of start-ups. The event culminated with the Demo pitch ceremony, live-streamed to viewers worldwide. Our fantastic innovators – Threedy, Oculavis, 3YOURMIND, CASTOR, GelSight, Augmentir, Teratonics and JITbase – pitched their concepts in a bid to win and secure a partnership with Hexagon. Each speaker had six minutes to tell the audience about the company's product and four minutes to answer the judges' questions, with Israeli startup CASTOR selected as runner-up and US company GelSight as the winner. GelSight’s proprietary technology enables digital tactile sensing., with the sensitivity and resolution of human touch to transform industrial process efficiency, accuracy, and quality. The judges were impressed that over 90 days of the Sixth Sense challenge, the GelSignt team integrated its invention into Hexagon's device and even found a potential customer excited to buy a combined solution. The second Sixth Sense challenge is now over, but the

The mission: “Solve the CNC machinist shortage while increasing your machine uptime” Manufacturers operate busy shop floors – by directing optimal pathways for operators, they can boost production and make the most of the time they have. “We believe that a CNC

The mission “We automate on-demand manufacturing” 3YOURMIND promises manufacturers “your parts, one click away.” In a world where many parts used in manufacturing can be created by 3D printing, 3YourMind enables companies to create their own parts on-site, sour

Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence launched the Sixth Sense open innovation platform in January 2022. Our goal is to create an ecosystem bringing scaling start-ups together with some of the world’s biggest companies, to turn real-world problems into transformative

The mission: “To reveal the invisible in the workflow” Teratonics offers innovative solutions for contactless non-destructive testing and imaging inside materials like plastics or composites and on coated surfaces. The non-hazardous technology reveals invisible, structural defects

Meet Castor The mission: “To optimise manufacturing – automatically identifying suitable parts for additive manufacturing” Manufacturing is evolving quickly and additive manufacturing offers many benefits to businesses. “We enable people to quickly check

The mission “Rethink industrial 3D” Threedy’s goal is to simplify the availability of industrial 3D data to leverage its true value. By abstracting the complexity of the 3D/XR domain, Threedy’s technology enables customers to build even the most complex industrial applications –

Finding investors is an important moment in any start-up journey. Perhaps you need an injection of cash to support a big growth stage? You might also recognise the need for external advice and guidance as you grow the business. Perhaps you’re ready to sell off a sizeable

The mission: “To empower workers to do their best work.” Augmentir believes that today’s industrial frontline workforce, with a global footprint of over 350 million workers, has been underserved by technology. It intends to change that. “To allow an employee to do their best

The mission: “Unleashing the limitless possibilities of tactile sensing” ​​GelSight is a pioneer in digital, imaging-based tactile intelligence. The proprietary technology enables digital tactile sensing with the sensitivity and resolution of human touch to transform industrial process

When Sixth Sense launched in January 2022, it was the first time Hexagon had created an in-depth engagement programme for working with start-ups. Of course, we had relationships with start-ups and collaborated with them on occasion but there was no formalised vehicle to help us meet and work with start-ups in our space. We wanted this to change. What followed was an amazing 10-week programme for our first ever challenge, which saw us work closely with seven inspiring start-ups from across the world. Not only did we get to meet and get a better understanding of other businesses in our space – we also learned a lot about Sixth Sense and how we might be able to take a great thing and make it even better the next time around. Here are my biggest learnings from cohort one – what start-ups need and how we’ll address these as we move into our second challenge with a fresh and exciting crop of scaling start-up businesses. 1. Start-ups are looking for more than money (but some do need it) We found in our original interviews when designing the platform that for most start-ups just being handed a cheque for equity doesn't cut it. It’s better to support product-market fit. But some companies do require the funding, which isn't originally what we were set up for. We don't have a venturing arm yet. Our focus is typically on acquisitions. Instead, we have connected to half a dozen VC leaders in advanced manufacturing and are sharing opportunities with them. We hope to see some positive outcomes out of this soon. 2. We need to hit the ground running with intros We definitely knew that we wanted to be more intentional with our next cohort. We’re going to work to create outcomes for the companies from the start, by involving more business unit owners and including more of the management team from the beginning. We’ll connect them with the start-ups immediately and find that fit. 3. Global cohorts are hard to handle We certainly had a challenge around coordinating companies from all around the world, particularly when it comes to global events. Trying to coordinate Europe, Brazil and the US all at once took a while. Also the level of engagement from companies to the programme and coach/mentor offering varied. For cohort two, even though time zones will always be a challenge, we are offering more flexibility and adjusting schedules to accommodate everybody. As far as mentoring goes, we have a slightly different approach this time, we have three main mentors/coaches who are working with assigned start-ups and then leaning on a wider group of mentors when required for specific areas – IP, product, branding, etc. 4. European companies aren’t as accustomed to pitching We discovered that European companies tend to have less investor pitching experience as quite a few of them seem to receive initial finance via grants through university networks or manufacturing institutes like Fraunhofer so they require a little more support to

Our second Selection Day saw 12 brilliant start-ups from around the world pitch their businesses to a panel of expert Hexagon judges and an online audience on 02 November 2022. Each company highlighted the innovative nature of their technology, its potential return on

With our shortlist of companies chosen, we are excitedly heading towards selection day on 02 November when we will choose the final six or seven cohort members who will enter the Sixth Sense programme for challenge two. Challenge two is all about: visualisation and digital

The search is over! Sixth Sense is delighted to announce that we have the shortlist of companies who will pitch to win a place in the second cohort. As you may know, we have been inviting applications from companies working in the areas of visualisation and digital reality

You can’t go too far in business these days without hearing the term ESG. It stands for Environmental, Social and Governance and it is a framework used to measure a business’s impact on society, the environment, how it treats people and whether it is transparent and

As a start-up in the smart manufacturing space, the subject of intellectual property has no doubt already come up. One of your most valuable assets as a start-up is your innovation and ideas – so it makes sense to protect them and ensure you can commercialise them. Given the importance of IP to a start-up, it’s wise to think about how you’re protecting your IP from the start of your business journey – if you haven’t yet, we recommend you give it some thought now. IP protection doesn’t just protect you against theft and replication by third parties, it’s also likely to enhance the commercial value of your business and therefore make it more attractive to external investors and potential acquirers. “Businesses that develop technical and scientific innovations, such as Tesla, Apple, and Novartis, as well as start-ups, spend enormous sums of time and capital developing the next big thing,” says Steven Saunders, Chair of the IP Group at Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP and mentor for Sixth Sense “These companies directly capitalise on that innovation. Ideally, nobody other than the entrepreneur who developed that innovation can commercialise it, giving the entrepreneur the exclusive right to own and potentially build the protected market/product.” How does it work? Firstly, you need to identify the IP in your business. This may seem obvious but there could be something valuable that you haven’t considered. Things like database contacts, customer lists, content on packaging, photography and brand slogans could be considered IP. Next, there are a number of ways to protect your IP, depending on what kind of asset it is. For most start-ups in the innovation space, you’ll be thinking about patents. Patents protect new inventions. A patent gives the patent owner the ability to prevent others from using the invention without permission. A third party might have to obtain a licence from the patent owner, enabling that third party to use the patented technology. “The typical patent process begins with preparation of a carefully crafted, customised patent application focused on the innovation and, hopefully, how it is going to be applied to your business,” explains Saunders. “Effective patent coverage requires careful and primary attention to business. This demands many questions: What is the business model? How do you plan on commercialising this technology? Who are your customers? What are your business goals?” Once you’ve filed the patent application, there will very likely be some back and forth between the examining office and your patent lawyer before you get the green light. Note: A provisional patent is not a patent. It’s the early part of the process and shouldn’t be considered as a given. “A provisional application gives its owner a first date of filing for the technology, and the right to try to obtain their patent rights within one year of that first date. That’s all. The technology still must undergo the rigour of the complete patent process,” adds Saunders. Copyright is another important type of IP in our space. Copyright protects

So! The next Sixth Sense challenge has been set. We are looking for companies working within Visualisation and Digital Reality and we are also looking for applications from companies working on Intelligence and Automation. We wanted to take a deeper dive into these areas –

Product market fit is what happens when the product you have created perfectly answers a customer need and therefore finds a strong market that enables it to grow. The term is credited to entrepreneur and investor Marc Andreessen who has described it as: "being in a

Find out what happened when our cohort members when head-to-head, presenting their ideas to an advisory board of industry experts. The live and virtual audiences watched all seven start-ups pitch their concept at London's Tobacco Dock on 25 May 2022. Their ideas were

Challenge two is here! Following the success of our inaugural cohort programme earlier this year, Sixth Sense is excited to launch our second challenge, aimed at advanced manufacturing start-ups in visualisation and digital reality, and intelligence and automation. This cohort’s

The Sixth Sense cohort recently enjoyed a fireside chat with Martin McCourt, the former Dyson CEO with over 40 years’ experience working at the heart of British manufacturing. He spoke to the start-ups about creating a culture that celebrates ideas, the power of doing things differently and how to deliver big ideas in a pitch. Here are just a few of the takeaways from the talk: Embracing ideas Martin spoke about the fact that Dyson created an environment where there was no such thing as a bad idea: “We all know that there is such a thing, but those are the ones you don’t commercialise. The point was that ideas were celebrated and encouraged. This is important when you’re starting out on your business journey, because it’s not just about your original concept – that’s just the beginning. Ideas need to flow like a torrent through the business – they’re the lifeblood of technology and innovation businesses.” Disruption The conversation moved towards the concept of disruption, and Martin called disruption a kind of mindset: “It’s actually setting out to create turbulence and disruption in the marketplace – because that’s when market share changes hands. Generally we only get rich in business when we steal share from someone else. If your competitors are criticising you, you know you’re hurting them – don’t see it as a bad thing necessarily.” He added a little warning to the start-ups before moving on: “It’s quite good for you guys to remember that you are disruptors right now, but you could easily become the disrupted before too long.” Innovation mindset Martin’s overarching message was a reasertation of the Peter Dricker adage, ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ “For maintaining a culture of innovation, number one for me was having the right people around you. For me that meant they were young, incredibly bright, fresh graduates. Second thing is, imagine what traditional corporates do and don’t do that. What I mean is the way they restrict creativity and idea processes by having too many meetings, too many rules, too many regulations, too many minutes, too many action points. Thinking is stifled. Get young people in and liberate them.” Differentiating products Differentiating products starts with quality, argues Martin – but then it comes down to creative presentation: “Dyson’s vision was to be known all around the world for making products that were different and better than other people’s. If you have something like this, don’t camouflage the brilliance of your idea in a big PowerPoint presentation. I often look at pitch decks and I say to the founders, ‘I think your idea is brilliant but I’m not sure you do! It’s not hitting me between the eyes, you’ve befuddled it.’ Martin described building powerful pitch decks as a creative process. “I would always encourage teams to sit down and think about what it is that is really magic about the product and then give it the 123 test – if you can only say one, two or three

Following two months of collaboration, tutorials and hard work refining their visions and pitches, the first Sixth Sense cohort of seven start-ups pitched to an audience of entrepreneurs, investors and tech leaders at Demo Day.

The first Sixth Sense cohort all participated in an innovate-on-the-job scaling programme from March until May, where they were supported by coaching, funding, and best practice examples from Hexagon’s customers. It is the progress from this programme that the companies presented at Sixth Sense’s inaugural demo day at London’s Tobacco Dock. As host Michael Hayman pointed out, while most US Presidents are given 100 days before being judged, these innovators had just 70. In that short time, they examined their products, their purpose and their potential, which was put to the test by an advisory panel of expert entrepreneurs and investors. Articulating your business To succeed, it must be clear what benefit any business provides to the world. Head of Manufacturing at BGF Mark Bryant called for clear articulation from each entrepreneur, which should be framed in terms of what you do, what it provides, why people would use it, and where the company is hoping to go. Similarly, entrepreneur and investor Elaine Warburton OBE asked to hear passion from the pitches: “I want to understand the business in the first 30 seconds. I want to know you love your baby.” For Innovate UK’s Made Smarter Innovation Deputy Challenge Director Ben Farmer, the word for the day was ‘credibility’. “I want to see that you understand your product, your market and how they fit together. Be confident that your founding team can execute the strategy.” Tips for investment Looking ahead, the panel provided their advice on how to develop relationships with investors. “Be open to taking advice and follow it,” was the key message from Drew Rogers, Senior Director for Corporate Development and M&A with Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence. And the advice from Mark Bryant was to keep it real: “Entrepreneurs can be extroverts or introverts. But they are always optimists. They believe in what they’re doing – that’s great – but they have to be realists too.” Elaine Warburton added that the secret to successful scaling and avoiding becoming a minnow in your industry is to know what the customer needs and to make it easy for them. The future of manufacturing Mark explained the adoption of technology is something that has historically been fragmented and siloed, with a discrepancy in capabilities and supply chain relationships across the industry. But Ben Farmer says manufacturing is increasingly getting its act together on sustainability, and that advancing digital and AI capabilities are at the heart of this. While each of the Sixth Sense cohort are different businesses, they all have a common goal and a belief in technology as the driver of a better, more efficient world. It was in the best articulation of this vision, demonstrating how it could be applied to the future of manufacturing, pushing the boundaries of engineering, design and technology, that the demo day winners were selected.

A fantastic day yesterday at London’s Tobacco Dock for the very first Sixth Sense Demo Day! And we are absolutely delighted to reveal our two winners… RIIICO – a confident and clear presentation from co-founder Jan Buechsenschuetz on how it is bringing factories into the 21st century with a collaborative planning platform, which disrupts how managers visualise their physical spaces and equipment. SmartParts – a near perfect pitch from Cody Burke on how this company is enabling organisations to unlock the full potential of additive manufacturing, by introducing intelligent materials that are scannable, traceable and cloud-connected. A further congratulations must go to Praemo, our runner-up and to the rest of our brilliant cohort. After two months of hard work refining their visions and pitches, our seven start-ups pitched to a live audience of entrepreneurs, investors and tech leaders in London, and hundreds more watching online around the world. The quality of the presentations was outstanding throughout, making it a very difficult decision for our brilliant advisory panel: Ben Farmer, Elaine Warburton OBE, Mark Bryant and Drew Rogers. A further thank you must go to Michael Hayman MBE DL for hosting this landmark event for Sixth Sense, and to Mark Stevenson for his gripping keynote address. This is only the beginning of the journey for all of our inaugural cohort and we cannot wait to see what they all do next.

Meet Eyeflow Mission: To democratize Artificial Intelligence EyeFlow is the no-code SaaS platform enabling anyone to build computer vision applications with AI in a simple, fast and intuitive way. The platform teaches machines to understand the real world and solve real

The Sixth Sense cohort has been enjoying a number of fireside chats with industry experts throughout the programme so far. The latest was with serial entrepreneur, investor and lecturer, Mathieu Carenzo. Carenzo is on a mission to empower entrepreneurs by bringing

Have you ever wondered what the future of manufacturing looks like? How the factories of tomorrow will work? Or how smart use of the world’s data might help to create a more sustainable future? Sixth Sense from Hexagon is an open innovation platform trying to answ

Meet SmartParts Mission: Enabling organizations to unlock the full potential of additive manufacturing by introducing an intelligent material that is scannable, traceable, and cloud-connected. PrintParts is an additive manufacturing service and technology development company. Founder Robert Haleluk realized that traceability was a big issue in additive manufacturing and so developed SmartParts as a solution to manage, authenticate, and track additive materials and parts throughout their lifecycle. The goal is to increase the value of the part without affecting costs or the mechanical properties of parts. We caught up with COO, Cody Burke, to see how they are getting on with the Sixth Sense programme so far… How has Sixth Sense been different to other accelerators so far? “The Sixth Sense team has done a really great job of meeting us where we are in terms of our maturity as an organization. Many of the companies in the programme are at different stages which could make things tricky, but Hexagon has been really flexible in adapting the programme to fit the realities of individual companies. It’s been super useful to have realistic goals and the specific help we need to achieve them. I think a lot of programmes out there are a little more cookie cutter and not as customized to the unique needs of companies.” What have the highlights of Sixth Sense been so far? “I found that all the coaches, internal and external, have been really engaged and responsive. There’s a high level of buy-in, obviously they have their own day jobs but we've found all the coaches we've worked with to be extremely generous with their time and in making connections to potential customers and other people within Hexagon.” What has been the biggest thing have you learned? “The most valuable thing we’ve learned (and are still learning) is how a company the scale of Hexagon operates with its huge breadth of technologies and customers. We’ve been given insight into how they see their solutions, how they bring new products to market, and how they think about integrations. There are plenty of takeaways for us as we seek to scale our own company.” How are you feeling in the lead up to Demo Day? “Good! We’ve got a lot of work to do but we’re happy with the insight we’ve had from the connections we’ve made at Hexagon. We’ve been iterating and now have clarity about what we plan to do on Demo Day now and what the expectations are. Good communication is key and the Sixth Sense team has been very open with us and provided clear guidelines during our weekly workshops. We’re excited!” Good luck on Demo Day, Cody and team!

Meet SMARTPM Mission: To maximize the productivity of assets (people, equipment, tools, IT) in machining companies – directing them towards the development of smart factories, which learn and adapt in real time to a changing environment in search of maximum quality,

Hanadi Jabado is managing partner at Sana Capital. She sat on the judging panel for our Sixth Sense Pitch Day. Here are her take-aways from the teams that made an impression. The Sixth Sense judging day saw 13 smart manufacturing start-ups pitch to a panel of experts and I w

We’re living and operating in a very complex world. For companies of all shapes and sizes to meet customer needs, they must constantly innovate. Finding strong, external collaborators is just one of the ways companies like Hexagon can accelerate progress. As a collaborator, we

With so many innovative, scaling start-ups sharing their pitches with us, our panel of expert judges played an important role on Pitch Day. Their experience and insight helped us to find our first cohort and some of them shared a little of this insight during a brief panel conversation. Bindi Karia, Venture Partner at Molten Ventures was impressed by the start-ups’ ability to illustrate their technology and their mission in such a clear and concise way: “All of the teams have extraordinarily complex solutions and to dissolve them into a five minute pitch is a very difficult thing to do,” she said. “I've really been able to understand what it is the company does, what their level of traction is, and the problem that it is they're trying to solve – and that's I know really hard for this kind of technology.” For Hanadi Jabado, Entrepreneur, Advisor, Investor, it was their ability to convey the financials that impressed her. “Usually when you listen to very complex pitches on very complex technologies, the founders get lost just describing the science and the technology. Whereas today, what I've been hearing are people who are trying to apply science and technology to make money – which is refreshing. They're telling us how they're making money and how they're planning to make more money.” Global ambitions and the ability to make an environmental impact was a big plus for Irene Graham OBE, CEO, Scaleup Institute. “They've all got global aspirations and it's good to see the client traction as well. Ultimately, that's what's going to build a product and make it scale,” she said, adding: “Several of the companies spoke about the positive environmental impact that their solutions could make in relation to the problem solving. That was really good to see.” The sustainability impact these businesses can have was also a big take-away for Matt Ohlman, CTO, Shadow Ventures. “There's clearly an overwhelming need for these technologies. I think that blends into what we need to do to fix the existential crisis we're facing as a planet – like climate change, environmental and social issues. Manufacturing's plays such a key part in all of those. There's a there's a lot here that is super important and it's only going to continue to get more important as time goes on.” The benefits of the technologies pitched to manufacturers wasn’t lost on Karia. “What I'll observe about all the solutions here, is the cash, efficiency and energy savings that are going to help these manufacturers leapfrog to the next generation of production.” When asked what her advice would be on getting it right as the start-ups begin their Sixth Sense journey, Jabado simply warned against where it can go not so well: “People get it wrong by forgetting the reason why they're there and that is to build a sustainable, scalable business. So they need to keep their eyes on the ball and making sure that they don't forget what is driving them.” Before they

Our Pitch Day was brought to a close with a bang thanks to British Silicon Valley entrepreneur and founder of live data giant WANdisco, David Richards OBE. Having grown his company from start-up to LSE-listed tech titan, he chatted to host Michael Hayman about the future of wor

The Sixth Sense Pitch Day event proved to be an exciting moment. We heard from 13 passionate and ambitious innovators, all working on potentially transformative solutions in the smart manufacturing space.

Corporate innovation has evolved. Having worked on it for a decade in a different sector, it’s interesting for me to look back at where it was then and what we’re doing now with Sixth Sense. Seven or eight years ago, when we started to see lots of accelerators and incubators pop up in corporate settings, there was something naive about it. I think we were kind of in love with the idea of hanging out with the ‘cool kids’ – innocently thinking that if you put start-ups together with big corporates, magic would just happen. I don’t think we recognised that for collaboration to truly take-off, we needed to be focused about it. For example, we needed the start-ups to be at the right business stage and to have a certain level of maturity to enable them to work effectively with corporates. Beyond that, there also needed to be some alignment between the start-ups’ objectives and that of the mature business. In short, it needed to be ‘investable’ for both the corporates and the start-ups concerned. We also probably underestimated the level of change that the corporates themselves would need to go through to allow them to interact more proactively with the start-ups. It was like we built the house, got all the right people to the party, but we didn’t have the right music playing for everyone to dance. We didn’t get to form alliances or relationships that stood the test of time. Richard Heggie, founder, H Catalyst But this deep experience has given me a chance to support Hexagon in their desire to get it right. To leverage H Catalyst’s expertise on what worked and what didn’t work and to create a far more value-exchange and outcome-orientated approach to open innovation. At Sixth Sense, there is a clear understanding of the areas of interest and the kinds of innovation that align with Hexagon’s broader mission. The areas where Hexagon, as an established global player, can truly add value to the companies coming in and collaborate. There is an understanding that we want to work with scaling start-ups that have product market fit already figured out. They need to be in a position for Hexagon to help them through scale and distribution – not simply through investment. It’s a win-win. Mutually beneficial for the start-ups and Hexagon. It’s not a case of handing over venture investment and sitting back saying ‘job done.’ We’ll be proactively sharing the right resources, the tools and constructing a programme that can help these businesses to scale. Sixth Sense is about helping the start-ups prove the business model and demonstrate the ‘win-win’ opportunity. If they can, Hexagon will unlock distribution, new markets and customer relationships to help them fly. Hexagon recognises that this is a journey and there will be ups, downs and opportunities to improve. However, Hexagon have shown their desire to start this journey on the best possible footing. I know from experience that this will be as much a

On Christmas Day 2021, Nasa launched a telescope 100 times more powerful than Hubble. The James Webb Telescope traveled one million miles away from Earth before unfolding itself, like a delicate piece of origami, and starting its job of transmitting images and data that will

When we launched Sixth Sense – our open innovation platform for scaling start-ups – there was one message in particular that I was keen to get out there. We’re looking for diverse founders to join us – those from underrepresented communities. Of course, this makes good business sense. But for me, it’s personal. I am the adoptive father to a black girl. When I look at the stats I’m worried – only 2% of venture capital is given to female-owned companies and less than 1% goes to black-owned companies. Where does this leave my daughter when she grows up, the math isn’t great. Hidden bias is a dangerous thing and it’s so common – we all have some sort of it. We hire people that look like us without even thinking. As a leader, you’ve got to understand your limitations, and act. As head of Sixth Sense, I’m in a position to do something about it, so I must try. My personal reasons for acting are just one side of the story. It’s a proven fact that diverse organisations are more innovative. If you have a homogeneous group, everyone agrees with each other. There is no dissent, there’s no opinion, no discussion. If you create a body of diverse people, that tends to bring you better innovation and better results because you tend to address things from a different angle. The stats are pretty persuasive here too. Boston Consulting Group found that for every dollar of investment raised, start-ups with at least one female founder produced 78 cents in revenue compared with 31 cents by all-male run start-ups. Meanwhile, companies with racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to perform at a higher level and have increased ROI. When you look at the manufacturing landscape, there seems to be a ceiling for people from underrepresented communities. We need to change that. Gone are the days when you could say ‘we couldn’t find a qualified women or person of colour.’ Nowadays that’s a cop out. We have got to work harder to find a diverse line-up of qualified candidates. It’s in our interest to change things. Of course, we launched the platform to supercharge scaling start-ups, but we’d be kidding ourselves if we didn’t expect them to supercharge us in return. Hexagon is a company that embraces innovation but mature companies like ours and constant innovation have a hard time mixing – it’s difficult to be experimental. But if you bring a dynamic group of people together, share your resources and tools, you’ll hopefully get dynamic outputs. Diversity is key to that. So we want to hear from you and see if we can create something transformative together. As well as create space for the next generation of diverse founders and leaders. It’s a double win.

One of the things we talk about enabling through Sixth Sense is an autonomous future that benefits all. It’s the goal of smart manufacturing as we see it and it’s something we talk about a lot at Hexagon. But I think it’s important to talk about what we mean here. When we talk

Sixth Sense is an open innovation platform bringing scaling start-ups together with some of the world’s biggest companies to turn real-world problems into transformative solutions. It is an opportunity for start-ups to access global markets, Hexagon’s customer relationships and