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 riseof Venture.Community, Yorkshire AI Labs and Sheffield Angels is atestament to the passion and commitment of those involved. Itʼs alsobeen fantastic to see our female founders secure the backing of northernbased, female-focused Lifted Ventures alongside a wide range of angeland VC investors mobilising from the UK and beyond. 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 SYhas worked across three core pillars: strategy; positioning; product plus astrong communications layer to amplify the story of the region and itsfounders and businesses. 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 outpractical interventions to accelerate growth. Alongside this, strengthenedpartnershipswithgovernment,industrybodiesandnationalorganisations have raised South Yorkshire's profile. 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,contribute and collaborate. 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 industrialroots and the significant research coming out of the University ofSheffield. This year, our collaborative report helps us to understand ourposition in the UK and global technology ecosystem. Tracey JohnsonProject Director at TECH SY Executive summary South Yorkshire startupsare now worth £3.1B,with 100+ VC-backedcompanies 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 researchcommercialisation. 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. South Yorkshire already showsstrong sector specialisation anduniversity ouput, but has yet toconvert this into late-stage scale,highlighting the opportunityahead. The University of Sheffield ranks8th among Europeʼs topuniversities for research-drivenDeep tech and entrepreneurship,with 45+ deep tech and biotechspinouts. Scope of the report What is a startup? Regional scope Spinouts 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 eligiblecompanies, including startups, scaleupsand unicorns. While many startups founded in theNorth of England/South Yorkshirerelocate beyond their borders, mostmaintain business-critical ties to theirhomelands. Spinouts are companies that originatefrom research carried out in a universityor research center. In many cases, the university/researchcenter might hold equity in thecompany, but that is not a requirementto be considered a spinout. 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(HQ) in their region of origin, andstartups originally founded in theseregions but later relocated their HQselsewhere. The university/research center mighthave non-equity agreements (such asroyalty-only) or there might be noformal agreement, but still