South West named a leading tech region in new report

The South West has established itself as one of the leading regions in the UK for technology businesses and start-ups, according to an influential new report.

The 12 Clusters of Tech report, compiled by London Tech Week and the UK Tech Cluster Group, highlighted creative technology, Artificial Intelligence, data and green energy as areas of strength for the South West.  

“The South West is garnering a reputation for building fast growing companies that tap into the needs of an increasingly tech driven world,” the report said. It also highlighted the region’s resilience, referring to findings from the Investment Activator Program that more than £364m in investment was raised in the South West during pandemic-hit 2020.

Among the region’s stand-out companies included in the report were Bristol chip developer Graphcore, Bath multimedia platform Future Publishing and ultrafast internet provider Jurassic Fibre. The companies to watch included UltraLeap, a haptic technologies business based in Bristol, and Plymouth’s Sponge, a provider of digital learning.

“We’ve proven that you can attract top people from renowned businesses like eBay and Google, nurture exceptional local talent and disrupt national and international markets from the South West,” said Luke Lang, the co-founder of Exeter-based crowdfunding platform Crowdcube, which was highlighted as one of the South West’s stand-out scaleup companies. Lang recently left the business.

“It is an amazing beautiful place to live and work,” said Louise Pasterfield, Founder of Sponge and Director of Strategy, Marketing & Communications. “With beaches and countryside nearby it offers the perfect work/life balance. We have had access to some top talent coming out of our Universities from creatives to technical experts. We’ve been able to recruit from well-known and respected universities in Falmouth, Plymouth, Exeter, Bristol and Bath.”