The Bristol tech scene is attracting companies from London as it continues to raise its profile.
That is the view of Kay Drury, head of the UK technology sector, transaction services, for KPMG.
Drury, who cut her teeth doing tech deals for the likes of IBM, thinks firms outside of Bristol and聽the South West are increasingly able to see beyond the 鈥榗ombine harvester鈥� stereotype.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have to explain myself quite so much. My business card says KPMG Bristol. It used to be: 鈥楤ristol? Why are you in Bristol?鈥� And now I don鈥檛 really get that question,鈥� she told 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淚 spend quite a lot of time in London, and one of the things we鈥檙e trying to work hard with 鈥� the likes of which are going on at Engine Shed and TechSPARK 鈥� is trying to bring that angel network and that investor profile up for Bristol, so it doesn鈥檛 really have to go to London. But invariably, you do spend a lot of time in London talking to investors.
鈥淏ristol is now seen as a much more culturally diverse city. You鈥檙e seeing a lot more companies that are based in London coming out this way: JustEat brought a lot of their back office development guys down and they landed in the Engine Shed before finding their own space.
鈥淧eople are recognising that there鈥檚 a really good talent pool down here, it costs a fraction of what it does in London, and it鈥檚 a great place to live.
鈥淚 think the profile is getting there and that鈥檚 largely down to the efforts of the people in the region, raising that profile collectively.鈥�
She added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to make regular trips [to the US] because you鈥檝e got some really well-established VC and private equity funds who have realised the UK is producing exciting tech companies.
鈥淎nd a lot of them don鈥檛 have offices over here so they鈥檙e hunting in the UK. We鈥檙e going to them to try and build those relationships and talk about the really interesting companies that we鈥檙e seeing.鈥�
Run by around six staff, non-membership organisation TechSPARK is an info hub for all things tech in the west of England. On a monthly basis it connects with roughly a third 鈥� 20,000 鈥� of the region鈥檚 tech sector. Drury praised its role in prompting innovation and collaboration in the region.
Ben Shorrock is MD of TechSPARK. He said although there is 鈥渓oads of stuff happening鈥�, the region鈥檚 traditional affluence means it lacks the Government-backed voice of the Northern Powerhouse cities of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle.
鈥淥ne of the things about Bristol compared with all of the Northern cities is that traditionally it鈥檚 a fairly prosperous city. There鈥檚 a lot less public engagement and public sector support than you would get in Wales or the North,鈥� he said.
鈥淪o part of the reason TechSPARK exists is that it has had some support from the public sector down here, but there isn鈥檛 a traditional competitor to what we are doing.
鈥淲hat I would say is the sector as a whole has competitors and that鈥檚 more on things like attracting talent. Like every other UK city we lose some of our talent going out to London and other places like that.鈥�
He added: 鈥淭here are some amazing businesses and traditionally we鈥檝e not shouted about it as much as we could have. We should be shouting about it much more. Even to the point where we鈥檙e just telling each other what we鈥檙e doing, and we can network and get benefit from that.鈥�