Bournemouth

Jobs in digital tech up 25% from
2014 to 2017

£341 mDigital tech business turnover (2017)

MatureDominant distribution of businesses by age (2017)

£88 kDigital tech turnover by employee (2017)

62Digital tech business births (2016)

£363 mGVA
(2017)

3,871Jobs in digital tech
(2017)

7,546Digital tech jobs
(2017)

Developments

This vibrant coastal town is an established visual effects and animation hub, with the annual BFX Festival of animation, games and visual effects putting Bournemouth on the map nationally and internationally. However, cyber security is also strong in this city, which is notably home to ESET’s European HQ. The startup community is gathering pace in cyber security, with the support of Bournemouth University and the Dorset Cyber Alliance.

Arts University Bournemouth is developing new ways of working with the creative and digital industries. Some of its students are now embedded into the visual effects facility Outpost VFX, where they can complete the final year of their degrees while working on live projects. The University’s new Innovation Studio will also open its doors in the summer of 2019. Designed by world-famous architects CRAB, it will support creative and digital startups, giving them mentoring and access to the University’s facilities.

Silicon South is running a European funded project, designed to provide support for digital SMEs through accelerator programmes, grants, workshops and specialist support.

Bournemouth University has set up a Computer Emergency Response Team, offering threat intelligence to 20,000 University employees and students. Uniquely, it fuses one operational and two academic departments: the University’s IT services as well as its Department of Computing and Informatics and Department of Psychology.

Mike Hawkyard

Managing Director, Amuzo

About Amuzo
Amuzo create games and serious games for global brands. Our titles have been played over three billion times and topped the charts in every country with an app store.

Why Bournemouth?
Bournemouth is a stunning location to work, rest and play. Beautiful beaches, great weather and a highly diverse community fuelled by tourism, strong economic growth and excellent educational facilities.

National & International focus
The majority of our clients are based overseas including LEGO (Denmark), Hasbro (US) and PLAYMOBIL (Germany). The abilities of our team makes our geographical location one of choice, as opposed to necessity.

Founded: 1998

Tara Flynn

COO, Ratio

About Ratio
Ratio is a high-growth FinTech firm specialising in comparison software. We provide attribution and tracking software to the majority of comparison sites in the UK and run choosewisely.co.uk, a comparison site aimed at encouraging financial inclusion for the unbanked.

Why Bournemouth?
As well as the amazing countryside and coastline, the laid-back lifestyle and the incredible talent pool fuelled by two universities; Bournemouth has an active community of creative businesses who collaborate and support each other, making it a unique environment for startups.

National & International focus
A significant proportion of the surrounding area is either sea or forest, so we’ve had to work hard to build relationships outside of our local area. We’ve achieved this by joining a London-based accelerator, by contributing to the Manchester-based FinTech scene and by becoming part of the Innovate Finance NGO.

Popular meetups in Bournemouth

460 members

Digital Project Management Bournemouth

370 members

Bournemouth WordPress Group

249 members

Startup Grind Bournemouth

Community perceptions survey findings

The Tech Nation 2018 Survey was conducted between January 2018 and February 2018, in partnership with Streetbees. This year’s survey received the largest response yet from members of the UK tech community. In a total of 3,428 submissions, people told us about the opportunities and challenges their local ecosystems face, and the digital tech leaders they admire. The majority of respondents (33%) were founders and CEOs.

What Bournemouth startups say is a strength

1.Helpful tech community

2.Appealing area

3.Access to talent

What Bournemouth startups say is a challenge

1.Access to talent

2.Strong competition

3.Retaining talent

Who Bournemouth startups say is influential

Matt Desmier

Managing Director, Wise Old Uncle

About you
I’m a branding strategist. I’m also one of many people helping grow the digital economy locally by doing stuff to support the community. For my part, since 2011, I’ve had the privilege of producing Silicon Beach, which helped put Bournemouth on the map.

Unique to Bournemouth
From what I’ve seen of other clusters, what’s unique about Bournemouth is the sense of community. There’s an above average level of camaraderie and inclusivity, especially for such a relatively small population. The town definitely punches well above it’s weight in that respect.

Strengths & Challenges
It’s ironic — but not a surprise — that “access to talent” is seen as both a strength and a challenge for the region. A collective voice, shouting much louder to an external audience about the great opportunities that exist within the businesses based in the area would certainly help celebrate that strength and minimise the challenge.

Tech Nation 2018 is now open!

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