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Newcastle

Digital tech business births up 154%
from 2011 to 2016

£995 mDigital tech business turnover (2017)
StartupDominant distribution of businesses by age (2017)
£97 kDigital tech turnover by employee (2017)
148Digital tech business births (2016)
£1.3 bnGVA
(2017)
10,258Jobs digital tech
(2017)
25,416Digital tech jobs
(2017)

Developments

This North East cluster continues on a steady upward trajectory. Business growth and collaboration is stimulated by a plethora of support networks including Digital Union and Dynamo. The recent establishment of the Newcastle Tech Trust, a group of experienced founders that understands the needs of early-stage, high-growth tech companies, is further empowering ambitious technology startups and scaleups.

  • With the long-awaited JEREMIE2 funding now live, new access to finance should stimulate the city’s tech sector. The £120 million fund could support 600 businesses and help create around 2,500 jobs over the next five years.
  • North East Futures UTC opens in September 2018 with support from industry leaders including Sage, Ubisoft and Accenture. The school for 14-19 year olds will focus on health, life sciences and cutting-edge digital technologies.
  • Launching on 22 June 2018, the Great Exhibition of the North is an 11 week celebration of the North of England’s pioneering spirit and the impact of Northern inventors, artists and designers. The event, which is free, will include exhibitions and live performances.

Darren Jobling

CEO, ZeroLight

About ZeroLight
Specialists in real-time 3D visualisation, ZeroLight empowers automotive brands and agencies to engage customers with compelling car buying experiences and digital content on any connected device, in-store and online.

Why Newcastle?
Engineering in the North-East has a long history and is well and truly alive in the region’s modern digital economy. The wealth of expertise that has stemmed from such a heritage offers a unique talent pool that drives innovation.

Founded: 2014

Sarat Pediredia

CEO, Hedgehog Lab

About Hedgehog lab
Hedgehog lab are a global technology consultancy that design and produce outstanding mobile, immersive, AI and IoT solutions for innovative startups and major brands.

Why Newcastle?
Newcastle boasts an active, growing tech community as well as two amazing universities. The regional talent we’ve been able to attract has benefited us no end. We also recognise that reasonable living costs enable our team to enjoy a higher quality of life.

Founded: 2007

Raised: £1m

Popular meetups in Newcastle

1,297 members

Agile North East

945 members

WordPress North East

773 members

Virtual JBoss User Group

We have clustered Newcastle meetups according to their topics. Meetups with similar topics are attracted, whilst meetups with different subjects are repelled. A full screen version can be found here. Click on a node, or search for a topic in the full screen version. 

We have clustered Newcastle meetups according to their topics. Meetups with similar topics are attracted, whilst meetups with different subjects are repelled. Please view this page on desktop to use this visualisation interactively.

There are no clear meetup clusters in Newcastle

Source: Tech Nation, 2018; Meetup.com, 2018. Thanks to the Oxford Internet Institute and JSIC

The size of each node is determined by the number of connections it has with others. A large node signifies a highly connected meetup with many topics shared with other groups.

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 Newcastle startups say is a strength

1Helpful tech community
2Proximity of a university
3Access to resources

What Newcastle startups say is a challenge

1Access to talent
2Access to funding
3Remote area

Who Newcastle startups say is influential

Paul Smith

Manager, Global Field Operations, Hyperloop One

About you
Previously I was CEO of Ignite, one of Europe’s first accelerator programmes, and more recently was part of the management team at Hyperloop One. I’m the founder of Newcastle Tech Trust, a private sector initiative to provide support for tech startups and scaleups in North East England, and CEO and co-founder of a B2B startup called Ricochet.

Unique to Newcastle?
There’s a really exciting scene developing around ageing and how technology can help tackle societal challenges. We’ve a huge opportunity to focus on this sector and create a new multi-disciplinary, multi-generational network of entrepreneurs, investors and research in the region.

Strengths & Challenges
We have a significant challenge in identifying and growing angel investment in the region, and ensuring there is informed education about how investments in the tech sector are structured. We need every startup and scaleup founder to support the next generation of entrepreneurs, and recognise the most efficient way to improve the region’s fortunes is by ensuring every new founder has access to informed support and best practice.

Tech Nation 2018 is now open!

Great news. All data featured in the 2018 Tech Nation Report is available online for non-commercial use by third parties.  The data can be accessed through the data.world platform. If you use the data, please let us know. We would love to showcase your work.

If you'd like know why we are doing this, check out our blog.

Next cluster

Norwich