Some of the biggest names in Yorkshire鈥檚 tech sector have opened up about what the county needs to become a tech powerhouse.
They were talking at the launch event of the inaugural 2023 Yorkshire Tech Climbers, which showcases the region鈥檚 most exciting digital companies.
Yorkshire鈥檚 digital industry is the fastest-growing in the UK and is set to create an extra 42,000 digital tech jobs and grow by at least 拢1.6bn by 2025.
Yorkshire Tech Climbers is now open for entries.
Collaboration
Stuart Clarke MBE, festival director of Leeds Digital Festival, said: 鈥淲e need more collaboration of a daily, weekly and monthly basis, to bring people together so we can learn from those successes, which we all want to emulate. Also, everyone makes a mistake at some point so let鈥檚 share those mistakes and stop other people making them.
鈥淭here are certain tech hubs in Yorkshire, like Leeds, Sheffield and Hull, that really stand out and it鈥檚 about how we can work with all the other places, like Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield and the rest of them, including North Yorkshire.
鈥淗ow do we work together to help each other? That鈥檚 the key thing. Making Yorkshire an alternative to London. If you an overseas organisation come to Leeds, come to Bradford, come to Sheffield, it doesn鈥檛 just have to be about London.鈥�
Focus
Alex Craven, co-founder and CEO of The Data City, said Yorkshire should play to its strengths.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a temptation, partly driven by economic policy development, for every place to want to be strong in everything, whereas every place should be free to be strong in what it鈥檚 strong in,鈥� he said.
鈥淟eeds and Yorkshire have got strengths in things like net zero, digital tech sectors, advanced manufacturing. It doesn鈥檛 then have to focus on all life sciences and all of the other things. It鈥檚 got a FinTech hub, it doesn鈥檛 have to rival London. It鈥檚 got a MedTech centre, it doesn鈥檛 have to rival Cambridge, it can just be comfortable having what it鈥檚 got.鈥�
The entrepreneur said improving Yorkshire鈥檚 transport system was critical.
鈥淟eeds is the largest city in Europe not to have a mass transport system, any form of tram or tube,鈥� he said. 鈥淕etting in and out of Leeds is a total gamble. That puts pressure on the car and road network.鈥�
Joined up approach
Zandra Moore, CEO and co-founder of data analytics software business Panintelligence, hailed Leeds as the UK鈥檚 most 鈥榗ollaborative tech community鈥� but said Yorkshire needed to work more collaboratively because of its size.
鈥淵orkshire is a place where you have deep specialisms in cities that have grown up around health, energy and engineering that are really good bases for building deep tech ecosystems,鈥� she said.
鈥淲hether it鈥檚 energy-related tech in Hull; data, health and professional services technology that you have in Leeds; and in Sheffield we鈥檙e going to see a lot more of the sensor and engineering technology.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got historical sectors in cities that have been here a very long time that need digital innovation.
鈥淵orkshire has the same challenge that the Northern Powerhouse has in connecting Manchester and Leeds. Transport remains one of the number one things that underpins that collaboration.鈥�
Access to funding
Gareth Lynton Jones is a partner of award-winning accountancy and business advisory firm BDO聽and the said the county鈥檚 tech sector was 鈥榲ibrant鈥�.
He added: 鈥淚t鈥檚 burgeoning, growing and there鈥檚 a lot of opportunity. I鈥檓 proud to be a part of it.
鈥淵orkshire has a lot of historical success with health and HealthTech but it鈥檚 starting to open out into different realms. I don鈥檛 necessarily think it鈥檚 pigeonholed into one area.
鈥淭he main challenge for the startups and scaleups is finding the right funders and investors who are going to take you on the journey.鈥�
Entrepreneur Rev Murugesan is the founder of Antonym, which has produced a plug and play 鈥榝actory in a box鈥� to enable companies to manufacture locally.
He chose to base his business in Leeds rather than in London or the West Coast of America for three reasons.
鈥淭he first was access to STEM talent,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have 12 universities across Yorkshire. We鈥檝e been blessed with access to a great talent pool.
鈥淭he second reason is we are quite close to high-value industrial manufacturing sites like Sheffield and Doncaster where trains and aircrafts are manufactured.
鈥淭he third reason is the dynamic tech culture in Leeds.鈥�
The Yorkshire Tech Climbers partners are BDO; Mercia Asset Management; Page White Farrer; Hyperact; TD SYNNEX; and Ward Hadaway. The associates are Leeds Digital; Leeds City Council; STFC; 老九品茶 Sheffield; and Climb 23.
老九品茶Cloud and TechBlast are media partners for Yorkshire Tech Climbers, which was launched at Department in Leeds Dock.
Tech Climbers is organised by Active Profile.