Leicester

UK #1 for increase in digital business births 2006-16 at 568%

£776 mDigital tech business turnover (2017)
MatureDominant distribution of businesses by age (2017)
£113 kDigital tech turnover by employee (2017)
207Digital tech business births (2016)
£895 mGVA
(2017)
6,860Jobs in digital tech
(2017)
28,121Digital tech jobs
(2017)

Developments

The city’s cultural quarter is being transformed into a hub for creative and digital tech startups. At the centre of this activity is Leicester Tech Startups, which rallies the community and aims to close the gap between universities and startups.

  • The much-anticipated Leicester Coworking Space is due to open this year. The office space will be low-cost and flexible, attracting freelancers, startups and community groups while acting as a catalyst for the local tech community.
  • Last year, the University of Leicester invested £5.1 million in a new innovation centre. Part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Leicester Innovation Hub fosters and accelerates creative innovation. Leicester SMEs, and graduates interested in starting tech businesses, will also benefit from a range of free or heavily subsidised innovation support that is offered by the University.
  • Leicester Tech Startups have launched a new founders-only roundtable, which has been a great success. It’s an opportunity for startup founders to share their problems and to learn from each other.

Matt Fenn

CEO, JumpLead

About Jumplead
Jumplead is inbound marketing software designed to move your leads through your sales funnel from visitor to customer.

Why Leicester?
Being SaaS geography isn’t important for us and the majority of our customers are in the US. We get a great quality of life in Leicester and the city has provided us with the raw talent we need to develop and grow a world class marketing automation system.

Founded: 2011

Callum McKeefery

CEO, Reviews

About Reviews
Reviews.co.uk is the worlds most advanced review collection and publishing technology.

Why Leicester?
We are in Leicester due to two excellent universities, and good transport links to London.

National & International focus
Apart from our office in Leicester, we have offices on the west & east coast of America.

Popular meetups in Leicester

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 Leicester startups say is a strength

1Proximity of a university
2Appealing area
3Good quality of life

What Leicester startups say is a challenge

1Access to funding
2Access to talent
3Availability of workspace

Who Leicester startups say is influential

Ben Ravilious

Director, UltimateWeb

About UltimateWeb
Originally a web & app development agency, my company UltimateWeb has now pivoted to become a startup studio (i.e. working for equity on joint ventures rather than paid work.) We have a growing portfolio and are looking for people with great startup ideas to partner with.

Unique to Leicester?
The Leicester tech scene is very grassroots with a bootstrapping attitude and little of the “Silicon …” hype. Whilst more publicity and investment would be welcomed, it’s great to be surrounded by people who are quietly getting on with it!

Strengths & Challenges
We need to get more local founders to come out of the woodwork and help each other out with things like the Founders Round Table and mentoring sessions. Get that happening and I believe the investment and recognition will follow. We also need our public sector partners to support more grassroots activity rather than primarily focussing on big infrastructure projects.

Tech Nation 2018 is now open!

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