Basingstoke has been named as one of the top locations in the UK for investment in digital tech companies.
With deals worth more than £425 million between 2015 and 2018, the town’s commitment to promoting emerging tech has paid off.
The town is the fourth best place for investment, just behind London, Cambridge and Abingdon.
M3 corridor
With its proximity to the fast-growing M3 tech corridor, Basingstoke is ideally situated to bring in new investment opportunities and more importantly to attracting investment on a global stage.
We are proud to base our company here in Basingstoke and these latest figures prove how advantageous it is to be based at the hub of emerging tech investment.
The Tech Nation report was published by Tech Nation, the UK network for technology entrepreneurs. Their league table shows towns and cities in the UK where funds have been invested into technology to the benefit of businesses.
The digital tech sector in the UK is booming, employment is high and new tech hubs are cropping up across the nation, according to the report.
Investment
The UK tech sector performed particularly well in investment last year. In 2018, the UK managed to attract 5% of global high-tech scale-up investment, placing it fourth in the world – ahead of Germany, France and Sweden.
Investment for UK high-growth digital tech firms also grew 61% between 2017 and 2018 – driven in large part by ambitious UK tech scale-ups (tech scale-ups delivered most of all tech investments in the UK in 2018 – £5 billion of £6.3 billion).
The UK’s strongest tech sub-sector and where it currently ranks as number one in the world, is FinTech, with investment in UK high-growth FinTech firms achieving £4.5 billion between 2015 and 2018. London continues to remain the UK’s leader in attracting high-growth tech investment, receiving £9 billion from 2015 to 2018. Cambridge is second, at £583 million, with other UK cities continuing to make considerable ground.
Tech Nation
The Tech Nation report was based on the number of scale-up companies in each area and the value of investments made into these companies.
The Tech Nation report also identifies Basingstoke as level with Prague, Strasbourg and San Jose when it comes to cyber investment.
It follows the 2018 Tech Nation report which ranked the town as fourth for digital tech density.
Councillor Rebecca Bean, cabinet member for borough development and Improvement at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council said: “This report proves yet again that Basingstoke is thriving when it comes to the digital sector.
“We have a vibrant and growing tech community, including our incubation hub for high-tech start-ups delivered through the SETsquared Partnership, which is truly something the town can be proud of. This is a great place to build and grow a tech company.”
The Tech Nation report also identifies Basingstoke as level with Prague, Strasbourg and San Jose when it comes to cyber investment.
It follows the 2018 Tech Nation report which ranked the town as fourth for digital tech density.
Earlier this week UL, a leading global safety science company, announced that it has consolidated its capabilities in Basingstoke to address the growing demand for testing and regulatory certification services. Their laboratories are used to test products from payment security to medical devices. This significant investment makes it UL’s largest commercial test facility in the United Kingdom. It adds an additional 37,000 square feet to the current facility, tripling its size, of which 15,000 square feet is dedicated to EMC and wireless testing.
Global markets
Through the consolidation, UL will provide a broad spectrum of certification types across multiple industries, technologies and geographies from a single location, so that as customers’ products are asked to be ‘smarter’, the location adapts to meet those needs. Certification expertise across multiple industries can be focused on one campus, making it easier for companies to have their products evaluated in a faster and more efficient way and therefore, reducing their time to global markets, while continuing to promote safe living and working environments.
Phil Davies, site leader and general manager for UL’s Consumer Technology division in the EMEA-LA region said: “This is an important moment in the development of UL’s compliance services in the U.K. The significant investment in new facilities will offer a one-stop service solution with state-of-the art custom-designed chambers and sourced equipment. Due to the enormous demand we’ve seen, we’re raising the bar in service excellence, and we hope to continue to strengthen our partnerships with customers through this expansion.”
Minister for Investment, Graham Stuart MP said: “The UK is the number-one destination for foreign investment in Europe, and my department will continue to ensure the benefits of foreign direct investment are felt right across the country.“
