Mapping Start-ups

I was reading Electronics Weekly last week, as you do, and noticed their ‘start-up map’. Listing all the young electronic businesses across the UK, it was really interesting to look at their geographical spread.

I’m afraid the Yorkshire region doesn’t exactly look like a hot bed of emerging technology within this sub-sector of technology. In total 5 companies were based within the boundaries of Yorkshire. Although I didn’t find this particularly surprising what did astound me were the numbers of companies coming out of the South East. 24 businesses were listed under Cambridge alone. No wonder we have difficultly persuading VCs to travel ‘up north’ - they have exciting investment prospects on their doorstep, and plenty of them.

That said, I know that the majority of companies that access Connect Yorkshire’s services have an IT base. Yorkshire definitely has greater activity within other sub-sectors of the technology industry, particularly within the digital and creative areas. Looking at the number of start-ups in the electronics sector in isolation is therefore not a true reflection of Yorkshire’s high tech talent. Our last Investment Forum in November proved that high quality deals in a sizable number are there for the taking.

For me what the map highlights is the power of transcending traditional regional boundaries particularly when attracting big spenders from the south. The North East had 4 businesses listed whilst the Manchester area had 6. If this start-up activity were pooled with Yorkshire’s 5 businesses then the pulling power of the north would be greater. Perhaps then it would be easier to convince a VC the train journey was worth the time and expense!