Access to Investment

Investment is key for scaling any business, but especially so for frontier digital companies. Investment allows businesses to invest in technology and people that will make them internationally competitive. Access to investment should be equal, regardless of where in the UK a business is located.

Access to private funding tends to be greater in southern England, particularly around London, Oxford and Cambridge. Disparities in access to private investment may be driven by the location of investors themselves.

The UK's economy has a variety of successful companies across different regions, many of these are digital companies and all are strong examples where private investment has allowed businesses to invest and become internationally competitive and reknowned. For instance, Cambridge is recognised for its technology and life sciences firms, while Oxford showcases strong examples in biotechnology. Manchester is home to significant enterprises in e-commerce and finance, and Liverpool and Leeds demonstrate strengths in retail, manufacturing, and healthcare. This regional diversity underscores the broader potential of the digital economy throughout the UK.

Specific Examples

The digital economy is represented by a range of companies across different regions that have attracted private investment.

In Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire, tech and life sciences firms such as ARM, Darktrace, and AstraZeneca are notable examples.
Oxford's Nanopore Technologies and Oxford BioMedica reflect the success of biotechnology companies in securing investment.
In Halton, INEOS, a key player in chemical processing stands out.
Manchester features companies like Boohoo, Auto Trader, and Interactive Investor, which have all drawn investment in the e-commerce and finance sectors.
Liverpool's The Very Group and Chargepoint Technology highlight investment in retail and manufacturing.
In Leeds, firms like Jet2 and EMIS Group represent the travel and healthcare sectors.
Newcastle and York also feature companies such as Pearson Engineering and Severfield, showcasing how the engineering and manufacturing sectors are part of the digital economy success stories.

About this data

This data is sourced from Dealroom and The Data City. It shows the access to private investment regardless of sector.

Access to private investment is defined as the number of funded businesses in each local or combined authority that have received private investment, compared to the number of registered businesses in a local or combined authority. Private investment includes VC and other non-public forms of financing.

The location of companies has been decided based on companies' registered addresses. Companies may have additional operating addresses, and investment may be received or spent by another operating location. This may effect the analysis through the headquartering effect, where companies choose to register their business in London, even if their substantive operations are elsewhere.

Access to Private Investment by Local Authority

Source: Dealroom/The Data City
Layout: Local Authority Districts 2023 Open Innovations (MIT)
License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Access to Private Investment by Combined Authority/Growth Region

0.5%

Source: Dealroom/The Data City
License: CC BY-SA 4.0