Her role centres on helping founders scale, and with a background team consisting of ex-founders, investors, and field engineers, AWS’s startup division is more than just Cloud credits – it is structured support embedded into the UK tech landscape.

Troth explained: “We’re very much in the trenches – helping startups build, run their proof of concept, accelerate into production, and ultimately succeed.”

AWS Activate: a decade of startup support

AWS’s flagship startup programme, AWS Activate, has been a cornerstone of its startup strategy for over a decade. It provides early-stage businesses with credits, technical mentorship, and go-to-market support to help navigate the cash-strapped and time-constrained early years of operation.

Troth noted: “We created Activate because we recognised that startups are often very resource-constrained and cash-limited, especially between critical funding rounds. Since launch, we’ve issued over $7 billion in credits [globally] and supported over 330,000 startups.”

Participation in AWS Activate goes beyond financial support. Startups gain access to AWS solution architect support, dedicated field and account teams, and investor engagement to help them prepare for growth and future funding rounds.

One standout success story is Olio, a sustainability-focused app designed to eliminate household food waste. Built on AWS infrastructure, Olio uses the platform’s AI tools to automate image creation, listing, and categorisation of surplus food, helping users to share rather than discard it.

Troth said: “Olio has scaled to eight million users and saved around 200 million food portions. It's a great example of Tech for Good and what’s possible when startups leverage AWS to build and scale sustainability solutions.”

Sector-specific support

While AWS Activate caters to a broad range of early-stage companies, AWS UK and Ireland also works closely with startups across several verticals, including B2B SaaS, fintech, and life sciences. According to Troth, many of these companies are exploring AI adoption to reach the next phase of development.

“Startups don’t always start with a vertical focus,” she added, “which is why we work with them from inception – when they’re often Greenfield or pre-seed – right through to scale.”

One fintech example is Zilch, a double-unicorn, London-born startup that operates an ad-subsidised payments platform. Working with Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Bedrock, Zilch processes around half a billion customer data sets to deliver personalised lending recommendations. The company now serves over four million users, adds around 80,000 new users per month, and processes approximately 3,000 data requests per minute.

“Zilch is a brilliant example of using Generative AI in a regulated industry,” said Troth. “Their ability to handle high volumes of contextual data has enabled them to personalise services at scale.”

AWS is also seeing a surge in activity in Life Sciences, particularly through companies such as Sonrai, a Belfast-based startup that is a particular favourite of Troth’s.

“Sonrai is one of the most innovative companies I’ve encountered. They’re using AWS tools to create AI-driven insights for precision medicine and genomics, bringing together data scientists, biologists, and healthcare professionals in a collaborative environment,” she said. “They are absolutely one to watch.”

Founded in Northern Ireland, Sonrai uses advanced data management, AI, and visualisation tools to accelerate drug discovery and medical research. Built on AWS, its platform helps researchers securely store and analyse complex biomedical datasets, integrate multi-omics information, and comply with clinical regulatory standards – all from a scalable Cloud environment.

The AI opportunity – and challenge

AWS recently released a report on unlocking AI potential in the UK, and the findings suggest a country on the cusp of large-scale AI integration – yet still facing significant capability barriers.

Troth commented: “One UK business adopts AI every minute, and we’ve seen a 33% year-over-year increase in AI adoption. But the biggest challenge startups face is a lack of AI skills and literacy.”

According to the report:

• 38% of UK companies said a lack of AI skills prevents them from scaling adoption
• 46% reported that this skills gap was slowing their adoption rate
• 47% of UK jobs will require AI literacy in the next three years, yet only 27% of businesses feel prepared for this shift

To help address this, AWS committed to training two million people in AI skills by 2025 – a target Troth confirmed the company was on track to meet.

Amazon is also bringing the AWS Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance to the UK, with the goal to provide 100,000 people with AI skills by 2030.

Investing in community and ecosystem

Beyond technical training, AWS is also investing in community building to ensure startups can access the support networks they need to succeed. The company is a founding partner of the London AI Hub, a new initiative aiming to unite founders, researchers, policymakers, and academics to accelerate AI development and deployment.

Troth explained: “Founders have told us that while they’re building great products, they’re struggling to scale due to talent gaps. The AI Hub was created to build a community and network that supports skills development, proof of concepts, and knowledge sharing.”

AWS has also partnered with organisations like Tech Nation and the UK Government to shape AI policy and advocate for founder needs.

“We held a FinTech Female Founders breakfast at the Summit, and there’s a real sense of momentum in the AI startup scene here,” Troth added.

How the UK stacks up globally

In terms of global positioning, Troth pointed to strong venture activity and AI innovation as signs of the UK’s competitiveness.

“According to the British Business Bank, the UK is the third-largest market globally for venture investment – just behind the US and China,” she said. “France has doubled its AI investment, Germany is catching up too, but the UK still leads in terms of AI-driven startups.”

She cited a figure from the AWS report: “89% of startups believe the UK has a significant advantage when it comes to AI innovation. That’s a strong signal that we’re well positioned, but we need to act fast to maintain that edge.”

AWS’s approach to supporting startups in the UK and Ireland is not limited to infrastructure – it involves a structured, layered support model with technical, commercial, and community elements. Through programmes like AWS Activate, skills training, and strategic partnerships, AWS is working to ensure that startups can not only survive the early stages but thrive and scale on a global stage.