Yorkshire

Find support and useful resources, make new contacts and discover events in your local community

Our Entrepreneur Engagement Managers (EEMs) are helping to build a national network of ambitious tech entrepreneurs.

I’m Jem Henderson, your EEM on the ground in Yorkshire.

Yorkshire is the heart of the country and a real hub of digital innovation and growth. I’m keen to help amplify the fantastic tech ecosystem we’re building here.

This page is your directory to help you find the best resources available in the region.

Need something else? Email or tweet me for help with plugging into our UK-wide entrepreneur network, applying for Tech Nation’s growth programmes, and everything inbetween.

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Yorkshire in stats

For more stats on UK tech, discover Tech Nation report 2019

3.67Digital tech turnover (£bn)

8695Digital tech business count

53,000Employment in digital tech

115Digital tech productivity per worker (£000s)

From the community

Click the headings below to hear from community leaders, read the latest ecosystem developments and view founder case studies

Community insight
Developments: Leeds – Sheffield – Hull
Case studies: Leeds – Sheffield – Hull

Leeds

Eve Roodhouse, Chief Officer Economic Development, Leeds City Council

Opportunities

Leeds is distinctively ambitious, powered by innovators, entrepreneurs, and social pioneers. There is real momentum across the city with the arrival this year of the Barclays Eagle Lab in the new AvenueHQ co-working space. Additionally, there is NEXUS, the University of Leeds Innovation Centre, and Co Space North – a space for people passionate about digitally-enabled health and care to connect, collaborate and co-create.

Challenges

We’ve proudly promoted diversity in the tech sector in Leeds, working hard to empower women in particular in recent years. However, we want to see a more diverse range of people being able to take advantage of the opportunities in the city, so we’re working with everyone from startups to major employers such as Sky, Deal Trak, NEXUS, and Crisp Thinking.

Sheffield

Tom Wolfenden, Centre Manager, Sheffield Technology Parks

Opportunities

I feel like Sheffield is genuinely turning a corner in that we’re starting to see a lot of people not only found businesses but keep them here too. For a long time, we lost talent and businesses to Leeds or Manchester. At Sheffield Technology Parks we do a lot of work around ecosystem support, hosting meetups, workshops, events and socials aimed to drive people’s confidence to start and develop a viable and successful business.

Challenges

There’s still a cultural reticence to shout about success. A lot of people, including me, generally like this modesty. It’s what makes Sheffield, Sheffield. But it also has a huge impact on people’s confidence to start something up. We’re working to address this cultural shift which will ultimately help the economic development we’re here to achieve.

Hull

David Shepherdson, co-creator, Hull Coin

Opportunities

Hull, in its own idiosyncratic way, is both competing with other cities in terms of external investment but more importantly is nurturing tech within a commercial, civic and social context, building a solid and sustainable infrastructure within the process. There is a growing understanding from policymakers, business leaders and politicians that the digital agenda is not an ‘add-on’ in terms of driving economic growth and sustainability; it is something that is integral to any business, local authority department or charity.

Challenges

The challenges facing the city are not unusual nor are they unknown. There is a serial skills gap in Hull that is endemic of its inability to unlock the potential of its population towards technology-related industries, resulting in ‘brain drain’ with better-qualified people accessing jobs that would otherwise remain within the city’s local economy.

Leeds is home to a number of innovative startups and scaleups. Rising Stars winner Vet AI secured £1m to help pet owners access healthcare more “affordably and conveniently”.

Meanwhile, immersive realities studio Cooperative Innovations closed a £500k seed funding round and began licensing its body-tracking animation tech to large developers. It has secured a license to develop a VR version of the popular mobile game Spaceteam.

Nexus hub, the innovation and business centre attached to the University of Leeds, opens in 2019. It’s aimed at working with high-growth and scaling businesses from across the region and beyond, partnering with organisations to help flourishing startups grow.

After much fanfare and gossip, it has been announced that Channel 4 are set to move their creative and digital departments, moving into the former Majestyk club in Leeds. The news has already sparked a number of filmmaking and digital companies to move.

Leeds Digital Festival has cemented its reputation once again 2019, boasting over 230 events in everything from energy innovation to healthtech, to starting and growing a tech business. Thousands attended, giving popular meetups a bigger platform to be seen.

Kollider recently opened in the former co-op site at Castle House. With an incubator powered by Barclays Eagle Labs, plans for a number of accelerators and a food hall, it’s another great resource for startups and scaling businesses in the city.

Sheffield has proposed a devolution deal between the government and Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham councils. The investment package is expected to be worth £900m over 30 years and will mean more money for ambitious projects and support for businesses in the City Region.

Sheffield has just held its first Digital Festival and awards, sponsored by The Star. It celebrated everything from the 97 new tech businesses started recently to entrepreneurs and businesses in the region – from the Good Things Foundation, to Joi Polloi and The Floow.

C4DI continues to go from strength-to-strength. The Centre for Digital Innovation tech hub is a privately-funded technology incubator that supports a community of more than 1,000 people. The ground floor has a Barclays Eagle Lab aimed at helping high-growth businesses.

Hull’s Fruit Market is undergoing a £22m regeneration, bringing additional retail and leisure space to the city, as well as a 500-person HQ for Arco, a prominent safety equipment provider, which was founded 133 years ago in Hull and employs 1,700 staff. They join their digital team who already work in the area after leaving C4DI.

The Hull Digital Awards in 2018 shone a spotlight on some of the best and brightest businesses and entrepreneurs including Hayden Barton, Good2Learn, APD Communications and more.

Revannth Murugesan, MD, Carbon Performance

About Carbon Performance

Carbon Performance is an automotive consumer technology company that develops next-generation, smart, 3D printed environmentally sustainable automotive parts that save fuel and reduce carbon footprint. It is a very deep-tech company with AI, additive manufacturing, augmented reality, internet of things, and blockchain under the company’s umbrella.

Why Leeds?

It is very hard to find reasons for tech companies to not be based in Leeds. It’s a vibrant city with access to multi-national talent with over 70,000 students, giving Leeds one of the fastest-growing tech scenes in Europe. With new tech hubs booming with startups and innovation, it’s really gaining momentum.

National and international focus

Although our primary market is outside of the UK, with North America and mainland Europe being our two largest markets, we are proud to have every bit of our supply chain including advanced manufacturing in the UK. We will soon be establishing a Dutch branch to have a footprint in mainland Europe and have access to European talent and customers.

Jordan Appleson, CEO and founder, Hark

About Hark

Hark’s cloud-based platform allows companies to simplify the route to intelligent assets to increase efficiency while reducing waste. In doing that, we monitor, store and analyse sensor data in real-time. Hark is being used to redefine operational efficiency and reduce costs in retail, manufacturing, facilities management and life sciences companies worldwide. Our tech provides real-time digital twins of physical assets.

Why Leeds?

Leeds has always had a strong digital community. In the last five years, we’ve seen it grow and the city has turned into a digital and technology hub. Startups, scaleups, corporates and enterprises have everything they need in the North. That ranges from a diverse talent pool (which continues to grow) to financial institutions who are willing to back the right businesses.

National and international focus

Hark operate out of Leeds; however, our cloud platform and technology has been rolled out nationwide for the top supermarkets in locations ranging from Cornwall to Inverness. We have deployments across England and Scotland with pharmaceutical customers and life science-based businesses. Internationally we’ve been working with partners in North America to deploy our technology in factories and manufacturing settings.

Laura Smith, cofounder, Slanted Theory

About Slanted theory

Slanted Theory is an innovative data visualisation and analytics company that utilises virtual, augmented and mixed reality to disrupt the way data is analysed. Our platform ALAIRA is an immersive and multi-user collaborative virtual environment that enables people to come together to interact, explore and understand their data like never before.

Why Sheffield?

Sheffield is continuously evolving and is a city with a vibrant community of creative and ambitious individuals. It’s a place where you can set up and experiment with your ideas, drawing from a fresh talent pool from the two universities here.

National and international focus

Our focus is on international markets such as the USA, where our clientele is predominantly based. As an emerging market, there is greater involvement and experimentation in mixed reality. We are also looking for national companies with interesting use cases for large-scale data analysis, and we currently looking for investment.

Jonathan Seaton, CEO, Twinkl

About Twinkl

Twinkl was founded in 2010 with a mission to ‘Help Those Who Teach’. This is still central to everything we do. We provide high-quality, trusted learning materials, all teacher-created and checked. We offer more than 525,000 resources, from entire schemes of work and assessments to augmented reality games and more. Twinkl is now used by over 4 million people, in over 179 countries.

Why Sheffield?

Twinkl started out in Sheffield as an ‘after-work’ business operated by my wife Susie and I. Now it has over 480 team members worldwide, including 290 at our head office in the city. We are proud that Twinkl was born in Sheffield and our growth is a testament to the amazing talents of people based or moving here, particularly in the digital and education sectors.

National and international focus

As Twinkl is a digital business, our resources have always been available to people anywhere. Although we have always created a range of resources, we initially targeted England by including materials specifically tailored to the National Curriculum – the company grew as schools embraced our resources. We have now adapted to suit different curricula and cultures and have been translated into 15 languages.

Lucy Blackley, founder and MD, Bombyx PLM

About Bombyx PLM

Bombyx PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is a web-based SaaS system for companies and their suppliers designed to streamline the complexities of the product lifecycle of any manufactured product. Bombyx ensures that everyone is on the same page, that teams can sleep well knowing they are up-to-date with their tasks, and that all product creation components are approved on time.

Why Hull?

I was born and raised in Hull and moved Manchester aged 18, before moving around the country to Birmingham, Oxford, and then London, eventually ending up in Berlin for three years; that’s where the concepts behind Bombyx were born. I returned to my home city to become involved in the growing tech community at C4DI (Centre for Digital Innovation).

National and international focus

Bombyx has users in Europe and North America, and we are currently working with a major university to incorporate our software into the curriculum of product design/engineering degrees. Additionally this year Barclays’ Eagle Labs is taking Bombyx PLM on the road around the UK to showcase the benefits of the software while promoting the importance of wellbeing in the workplace.

Furqan Alamgir, CEO, Connexin

About Connexin

Connexin is an innovative technology company specialising in building and operating award-winning Smart City Infrastructure to support digitisation and internet of things. In October 2017, Connexin secured a £10m investment to rapidly scale up and expand its Smart City infrastructure-as-a-service model for municipalities. The company was recently named one of the Top 100 Fastest Growing Technology Companies in the Northern Tech Awards.

Why Hull?

The company’s founders have always been passionate about helping Hull to grow. In 2012, we began the build of our first wireless network here, to not only supply homes and businesses but also provide public wifi. We believe Hull has a lot of talent that migrates out of the city, so we have created a culture that retains and develops strong local talent.

National and international focus

Connexin uses digital technology to connect, protect, and improve the lives of citizens. We deploy end-to-end IoT and connectivity solutions that often include sensors or intelligent video cameras. With the data this captures, we provide local authorities and citizens constant with feedback so they can make informed decisions.

Latest news from the region

Enter the archive

Support for founders

Meetups & networks

Research shows that collaborative tech ecosystems with thriving meetup scenes are more likely to succeed. As a founder, making the effort to get out to meetups and network events can lead to serendipitous encounters with people in the community who can give your business a boost.

Have a suggestion for this section? Let Jem know

Leeds – Agile Leeds
Leeds – Agile Yorkshire
Leeds – AWS Leeds User Group
Leeds – Code & Coffee
Leeds – CodeUp Leeds
Leeds – Empowering Women with Technology
Leeds – Hey!
Leeds – IoT Leeds
Leeds – LeedsJS
Leeds – Ladies of Code
Leeds – Leeds Blockchain Meetup
Leeds – Leeds Code Dojo
Leeds – That JVM Thing

Sheffield – Agile Sheffield
Sheffield – CodeUp Sheffield
Sheffield – dotnetsheff
Sheffield – ExpertTalks Sheffield
Sheffield – Front End Sheffield
Sheffield – Sheffield Data for Good
Sheffield – Sheffield R Users Group
Sheffield – WordPress Sheffield

Hull – C4DI meetups

Harrogate – Harrogate Digital

Huddersfield – CodeUp Huddersfield

Co-working space

Co-working isn’t just about the free coffee – it’s a more flexible alternative to working out of traditional office space and brings the benefits of being part of a community. It’s a great way to build out your network, find people to collaborate with and discover the best tech events. We’ve highlighted some of the best co-working spaces in the region.

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Barnsley – Digital Media Centre (DMC)

Bradford – Assembly Bradford
Bradford – Wizu Workspace
Bradford – Bread + Roses

Doncaster – Helm

Halifax – Leeds Beckett University Business Centre

Harrogate – Indieworx Collective

Huddersfield – The Media Centre

Hull – C4DI
Hull – OneSixOne

Leeds – Platform
Leeds – Leeds Beckett University Business Centre
Leeds – ODI Leeds
Leeds – Wizu
Leeds – One Aire Street
Leeds – Duke Studios
Leeds – Castleton Mill
Leeds – AvenueHQ
Leeds – Shine
Leeds – McCarthy’s Business Centre

Sheffield – Showroom Workstation
Sheffield – a-ten
Sheffield – Electric Works
Sheffield – Union ST
Sheffield – Kollider
Sheffield – Desk.Space

Wakefield – Leeds Beckett University Business Centre

York – Hiscox Business Club
York – Acollective

Skills support

From learning how to develop software to nailing the art of self-promotion, helping your team brush up on their digital and soft skills can boost your business. We’ve highlighted some of the best code clubs, incubators, accelerators, bootcamps and other support services in the region.

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Leeds City Region – Ad:venture

Leeds – Northcoders
Leeds – NorthInvest
Leeds – Natwest Entrepreneur Accelerator

Hull – C4DI – Tech Startup & Scaleup Incubation
Hull – OneSixOne – Hull Youth Support Trust
Hull – University of Hull – The Enterprise Centre

Sheffield City Region – Growth Hub – Y Accelerator
Sheffield City Region – Growth hub – Skills Bank/Masterclasses
Sheffield City Region – Sheffield Digital (Support)

Sheffield – Sheffield Technology Parks
Sheffield – Kollider – Barclays Eagle Lab

Finance & investment

Securing finance and raising investment can be vital when it comes to taking your startup to the next level. Whether you’re seeking angel, VC or other types of finance, we’ve picked out a range of investors, funds and support networks in the region.

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