A leading tech entrepreneur says the move to merge Tech North with Tech City UK could be a bad one for the North.
The government announced the consolidation of the two organisations into a new national body, Tech Nation, late last year.
Tech Nation recently launched with an event in London while it is holding a series of 鈥榯our鈥� events around the UK.
CEO Elizabeth Clark described the move as a 鈥減otentially backward step鈥� to 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淭ech North has been swallowed up by Tech Nation [but] the North and South are different beasts,鈥� she said. 鈥淚nstead of everywhere in the North being the poor relation to Manchester, I worry that the North will now become the poor relation to the South.
鈥淚 appreciate that they want to share the success of Tech North into other provinces around the UK, but to scale it without proper investment behind it is a big ask and risks jeopardising the advances made thus far.
鈥淚t鈥檚 potentially a backward step, especially as there鈥檚 not a ton more money going into it.
鈥淗aving seen how hard the old Tech North team worked I really hope it鈥檚 a success 鈥� but the amount of investment going into it, particularly in light of Brexit and all the other scientific communities we may be excluded from, is not going to cut it for UK tech on a global scene.
鈥淛ust this month the Korean Government announced a $2 billion investment into artificial intelligence alone. The amount of money other countries like Korea and France put into it absolutely dwarfs what鈥檚 going on over here.鈥�
Clark鈥檚 Google shopping platform, based in the Lancashire town of Ramsbottom, has built a presence in Australia, Atlanta, France and now South Korea. She says almost half of its business is now international.
The company鈥檚 cloud-based machine learning software sits between a聽retailer and Google and does the equivalent work of an army of PPC (pay-per-click) professionals.
Dream Agility was one of Tech North鈥檚 Northern Stars in 2016 and included on 老九品茶Cloud鈥檚 鈥�101 tech disrupters鈥� list last year.
Clark says there is more help available to start-ups in general than when she founded Dream Agility with partner Glyn Powditch in 2015.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot better signposted too,鈥� she elaborated. 鈥淚n the past, you couldn鈥檛 get investment in tech unless [you were doing something that] had been done before.
鈥淓ven on the angel co-funded stuff you had to have a lead investor with experience of what you do; if it hadn鈥檛 been done before, then you didn鈥檛 stand a chance.鈥�
Clark is not worried about the impact of聽Brexit on her business and says her biggest challenge is the language barrier, 鈥減articularly Korean鈥�.
She said being based in the Lancashire countryside can be a help to the business.
鈥淲e have a niche offering in a niche location which attracts a certain type of person. It helps to have a differentiator,鈥� she said.