The Yorkshire Tech Climbers 2024 List, which shines a light on the region’s growing stars of the tech sector, has been revealed.
The 17-strong cohort showcases and celebrates top-performing technology-led businesses that make the county one of the UK’s most exciting tech destinations.
According to new data collected from entries to the 2024 Yorkshire Tech Climber list, 94 per cent of Yorkshire’s tech startups are looking for growth funding – an increase of 11 per cent year-on-year.
The data comes as Yorkshire continues to establish itself as an alternative tech hub to the likes of London and Manchester.
A recent report by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology found that businesses in Yorkshire and Humber saw a 20 per cent uplift in venture capital investment, reaching new highs of over £200m of investment in 2023.
Tech Climbers Yorkshire data saw a positive attitude to gaining funding for growth, as over two thirds of respondents (70 per cent) were very confident they would secure investment.
A record 617 tech startups were formed in South Yorkshire in 2023, pushing the sector past 4,500 companies for the first time.
This was reflected in the Tech Climbers entry data, where more companies in Sheffield entered than in Leeds for the first time.
Tech Climbers is an annual regional list showcasing the rising stars of the region’s tech sector.
A total of 17 companies were selected for this year’s Yorkshire Tech Climbers list, with another 10 up-and-coming businesses making the ‘ones to watch’ list.
The successful businesses joined 80 leading figures from across Yorkshire’s burgeoning tech sector at an event at Headrow House in Leeds on Tuesday evening.
At the event, attendees also heard about new data from The Data City on the fastest growing sectors in Yorkshire’s tech landscape:
- Energy storage – 16.4 per cent
- Software development – 14.5 per cent
- Agency market – 12.4 per cent
- SaaS – 12.1 per cent
The data from Tech Climbers also projected around 279 new jobs in Yorkshire’s tech sector.
Anna Heyes, founder of Tech Climbers and CEO at Active Profile said: “We were blown away by Yorkshire last year, as we spotlighted the region’s ambition, and in 2024, we can really see the incredible progress made by the ecosystem here – the growth in the number of startups alone is a fantastic indicator of Yorkshire’s potential to be a global hub for tech.
“The level of confidence coming through from this year’s entrants is really encouraging – Yorkshire knows it’s got talent and it’s not afraid to put itself out there, competing with other regions for investment. I’m delighted that Tech Climbers can play a role in showcasing that talent and the hunger for growth.”
Sophie Copley is the co-founder of Little Journey, which was included in the main list.
She said: “Tech Climbers is super important, mostly because it’s not just about the startups. This is a really important event to make sure people connect, come together, network and find those people who can help us scale. Yorkshire needs to work really hard on making sure we have events like this that bring people together and shines a light on the amount of talent that we have.”
American Dash Tabor is the founder and CEO of TUBR, which was included in the ones to watch list.
She said: “I think it’s really important that Yorkshire shouts about itself as a tech hub. Tech Climbers helps do that by creating a platform and a space where people can see what’s going on in the region.”
Tabor told the audience that, in her experience, UK investors were a lot more risk-averse than their counterparts in the US.
The other speakers were Gary Woodhead, founder, Curveblock; Aaron Oliver-Taylor, chief technology officer, Gold Standard Phantoms; Dr Stuart Flint, president, Scaled Insights; and Malcolm Wallis, managing director of C365Cloud.
Tech Climbers Yorkshire partners this year are headline partners BDO, TD SYNNEX and Ward Hadaway. Ecosystem partners are Climb24, DMC, Leeds Digital, Sheffield Technology Parks, Sheffield Hallam University, York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, West Yorkshire Combined Authority and UK Tech Week. National partners are: TechUK, HubSpot, The Data City and InnovateHer.
