崛起的地区：南约克郡的规模化之路

Foreword Our metrics show we are ʻemergingʼ – this reflects the upward trajectorywe are seeing in terms of the number and viability of businesses, and theimproved VC landscape. We still donʼt see the later stage investment weneed but crucially the last 12-24 months has witnessed a new dynamic inthe ecosystem. More than ever before we have founders whoʼve exitedtheir own scale ups bringing their experience and money to bear onhelping new companies. I canʼt stress enough how much this matters andhow much of an indicator of the health of the ecosystem this is! The rise South Yorkshireʼs tech ecosystem is entering a pivotal moment in itsdevelopment. Over the past two years, the TECH SY programme hashelped lay essential foundations for a more connected, data-driven,growth-orientated and founder centred regional tech economy. TECH SY A major achievement has been the co-production of a collaborativeaction plan. Developed with leaders from across the public, private andacademic sectors and informed by a wide community of founders, theplan reflects the complexity of ecosystem-level work while setting out We live in interesting times; leveraging the strengths of our region hasnever been more important for national economic gain and sovereignbenefit. I hope this window into not just South Yorkshire but our positionacross a growing, vibrant UK tech economy encourages you to connect, Working with Dealroom has enabled us to really ʻlift the hoodʼ on theecosystem. Last yearʼs report helped to establish an evidence-basedunderstanding of our strengths and opportunities; it was no surprise thatwe have a real specialism deep tech given our long-standing industrial Tracey JohnsonProject Director at TECH SY Executive summary Deep tech is SouthYorkshireʼs top-fundedsector, attracting £121Msince 2022 South Yorkshire has thesame ecosystem value asHelsinki and Pittsburgha decade ago Private, pre-exit companiesaccount for over £1B in enterprisevalue, having grown almost 4×since 2020 and more than 15×over the past decade. Deep tech and Physical techreceive a significantly higher shareof VC funding than the UK average,reflecting strong university-drivenoutput and research At around £3B in ecosystem value,South Yorkshire mirrors the scaleof Helsinki (2012) and Pittsburgh(2014) at similar stages ofdevelopment. Since 2020, South Yorkshirestartups have raised £360M+ in VCfunding, with 2025 marking arecord year for early-stage (SeriesA) investment, nearly 2× higherthan 2024. The University of Sheffield ranks8th among Europeʼs topuniversities for research-drivenDeep tech and entrepreneurship, Scope of the report What is a startup? Regional scope Spinouts While many startups founded in theNorth of England/South Yorkshirerelocate beyond their borders, most Spinouts are companies that originatefrom research carried out in a university Startups are companies designed togrow fast. Generally, such companiesare VC-investable businesses. Onlycompanies founded since 1990 areincluded in this report. Throughout thereport, “startup” is used to commonlyrefer to all subtypes of eligible In many cases, the university/researchcenter might hold equity in thecompany, but that is not a requirement In order to take this reality into account,the first chapter of this report includesboth startups based in the North ofEngland & South Yorkshire, whichmaintain their main center of business The university/research center mighthave non-equity agreements (such asroyalty-only) or there might be noformal agreement, but still a clear and Please refer the methodology section at the end ofthis report for more details on our approach. A jointly launcheddedicated open-accessdata platform for theSouth Yorkshire tech Accessible to anyone, to providedata transparency, learn aboutthe ecosystem, measure KPIs, » view online Explore South Yorkshirestartups mapped acrossa detailed industrytaxonomy 1South Yorkshire tech update 2Deep Tech & Universities3Outlook & Benchmarking The combinedenterprise valueof startups in the The North of Englandaccounts for 7% of the UKʼstech ecosystem value, or18% when excluding Startups in theNorth of Englandhave producedover £7.1 invalue for every South Yorkshirestartups are nowworth £3.1B Since 2020, they havegrown almost 4x, and overthe past decade, more than15x South Yorkshirestartups haveraised over£360M in VCfunding since 2025 marked a record yearfor early-stage VCinvestment, nearlydoubling 2024 levels, witha record £35M raised inSeries A funding. 63% of SouthYorkshireʼs VCinvestment came South Yorkshire sees lessforeign VC participationthan the UK overall South Yorkshiresits alongsidemid-sized UKecosystems byenterprise value, 1South Yorkshire tech update 2Sectors & Universities 3Outlook & Benchmarking South Yorkshirehas a strongpipeline ofPhysical techand Deep techstartups, withsome late stage Deep Tech is thetop-fundedsector, attracting£121M in VCinvestment since Transportation, ClimateTech, Energy