Minister praises ‘thriving’ Yorkshire tech landscape as new figures show investment boost

Speaking on the figures, Bhatti, who is Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Tech and the Digital Economy, said he was “delighted” to see the stats for the region.

His comments come as the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology launches a new campaign aimed at driving up domestic investment opportunities in scale-ups. The Science and Tech is our Superpower campaign will aim to make sure growth-ready firms in the sector can access funding.

The MP for Meriden added: “Clearly Yorkshire has a thriving tech scene. I cover semiconductors, and we know the region has a really fascinating and exciting semiconductor landscape.

“We are committed to being a science and tech superpower by 2030, and recently launched our campaign to do this. The idea of that campaign is really to make sure venture capitals and investors are matching our ambition, and Yorkshire is a great example of that.

“I’m a Midlands MP, so for me it's no surprise that there are such thriving clusters outside London that we should be incredibly proud of.”

The figures from Barclays, however, also highlight a number of pitfalls for the UK tech landscape.

According to the research, more than half of founders (54 per cent) claimed that the availability of funding is holding back their company’s growth. Just over 15 per cent of founders also said that selling their business to an international buyer is their most preferred business exit strategy.

Speaking on how the new campaign will aim to solve this, Bahatti added: “First of all, we’re making sure we’re promoting the UK as a venue for domestic as well as foreign investment.

“We know having done campaigns like that before that there is a good return on investment, so we’re very confident this will allow us to achieve our ambitions in terms of our place in the world as a global super power when it comes to tech and science.”