Tech Nation has been acquired by Founders Forum Group

After a decade as a government-backed organisation serving the UK scaleup tech ecosystem, Tech Nation has been acquired by Founders Forum Group.

Founders Forum Group is a global community and group of businesses supporting entrepreneurs at every stage of their journeys.

The transfer will see FF Group continue to execute against Tech Nation’s mission to empower tech entrepreneurs, scale innovative startups, and provide a united platform for UK tech founders. 

FF Group will relaunch a number of Tech Nation programmes and reports on the UK tech sector as part of its existing portfolio of events and services tailored to entrepreneurs, continuing to build on the organisation’s activities to date.

Tech Nation, under the FF Group umbrella, will continue to process the Global Talent Visa for the Home Office and applicants can continue to apply as normal with applications in process unaffected, while the Home Office identifies a ​​new endorsing body to take over from Tech Nation.

Tech Nation is the growth platform for tech companies and leaders

Tech Nation fuels the growth of game-changing founders, leaders and scaling companies so they can positively transform societies and economies. We provide them with the coaching, content and community they need for their journey in designing the future.

Tech Nation catalyses the 21st century infrastructure that accelerates the entire ecosystem, bringing together a network of purposeful founders and philanthropists, progressive enterprises and policymakers, influential funds and institutions in order to collaborate in building the technological innovation that will improve the future for the UK and beyond.

When we started out in 2010, we dreamt of a tech nation that united the country. We kicked off by shining a spotlight on London’s tech cluster, and then rapidly expanded our reach to join the dots on UK technology, from Belfast to Bangor, Dundee to Derby, Liverpool to Leeds, Sheffield to Sunderland and Newcastle to Norwich. Our growth programmes, visa scheme, digital academy, networking conferences, international expansion programs, sandboxes, panels and in-depth sector research, analysis and reports have helped shape the trajectory and success of UK tech, now valued at $1trn (16x in 10 years) and employing 4.8m people (2x in 10 years)with salaries 80% higher than professional jobs.

• Within the UK Tech ecosystem, our focus has been on supporting the scaleups which create over 90% of U.K. tech jobs, and we’re proud of the fact that those we’ve accelerated have disproportionately thrived. 
• While 80% of start-ups fail within their first 2-5 years, over 95% of start-ups on Tech Nation’s growth programmes have gone on to scale. Some 40% of all tech unicorns and decacorns created in the UK have graduated from a Tech Nation growth programme, collectively raising over £28.1bn so far in venture capital and capital markets. 
• 13,000 jobs have been created nationwide as a direct result of our intervention. Our alumni includes the biggest names in UK tech; Monzo, Revolut, Bloom and Wild, Zilch, Just Eat, DarkTrace, Marshmallow, Sky Scanner, Peak AI and Deliveroo, to name just a few of the 5,000+ businesses we’ve supported.

Discover our 2022 Annual Report…

Our Board

We’ve assembled a board of serial founders, seasoned investors and sector experts who share our obsession with building, backing and boosting the technological innovation to improve the future for the UK and beyond. They have lived the entrepreneurial journey so they can voice the founder perspective at board level. They keep us accountable, ensure we’re effective and accelerate our ambitions. Like us, they want to contribute to a future in which anyone with vision and drive can access the skills and support needed to scale and succeed as a game-changing leader.