North of England

Enterprise value

How much North of England’s VC-backed companies are worth

Combined enterprise value of VC-backed companies headquartered or founded in North of England, founded since 1990 and still operating, at the end of each year. Companies stay in the total after they list or are acquired.

Companies founded since 2015 have doubled in value since 2022

Companies founded since 2015 and headquartered in the North went from $7.5B at the end of 2022 to $15.0B in 2026. Companies founded in the North since 2015 that moved their headquarters elsewhere add $2.6B. Older companies, founded in 1990–2014, went from $35.9B to $38.2B, which is why the total above has levelled off.

Map

Where the North of England sits

The North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber, with their startup hubs and the universities producing the most spinouts. The Northern Triangle joins the universities of Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield. Hubs are sized by combined enterprise value at end-2025, universities by spinouts.

Boundaries: ONS International Territorial Level 1 (January 2021); contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right; Open Government Licence v3.0. Hubs and universities: Dealroom. Largest outcomes: a selection of the North’s unicorns, listed and acquired companies, at their latest Dealroom valuation. Scaleups: companies that raised $40M+ with a VC round since 2022, at their town (their founding town where they have since moved out of the North).

Sectors

The North of England by sector

Where the North's startups and value sit by industry, and the sectors where VC is growing fastest.

Enterprise software and fintech companies hold the most value in the North

Enterprise software companies founded or based in the North are worth $19.5B and fintech companies $17.3B. Health has the most startups, 286. The North has 10% of the UK's funded startups overall, and 25% of those in engineering and manufacturing equipment.

Health raised $353M in 2024–2025, up 48%, the most of the North's growing sectors

These are the sectors where VC into the North grew most between the two periods, among those with $25M or more over 10 or more rounds in 2024–2025: internet of things, engineering and manufacturing equipment, gaming, autonomous and sensor tech, robotics, health.

Deep tech

Deep tech and life sciences in the North of England

How the North of England's deep tech and life sciences companies compare with the rest of the UK.

The North of England produced 18% of the UK's deep tech spinouts since 2020

59 of the UK's 329 VC-backed deep tech spinouts founded since 2020 come from the North of England, as many as the East of England (59) and more than Cambridge (49). Most of the North's deep tech starts in a university: 65% of its companies founded since 2020 are spinouts, against 41% across the UK and 24% in London.

The North of England's number of new deep tech startups held up while the UK's fell

91 VC-backed deep tech startups in the North of England were founded since 2020, against 83 in 2015–19, while the UK total fell from 1,034 to 801. Its share of the UK's new deep tech startups rose from 8.0% to 11.4%.

Deep tech startups in the North of England raise much less than the UK average

The North of England has 11.2% of the UK's VC-backed deep tech companies but raised 3.5% of UK deep tech VC since 2020 ($5.5M per company, against $17.5M across the UK).

Source: Dealroom, 19 Oct 2026.

28% of the North's deep tech startups have had a grant, and 80% of those are VC-backed

1,171 grant rounds have gone to companies in the North of England since 2020, 299 of them from UK Research and Innovation, mostly through Innovate UK. Deep tech startups are eight times as likely as other startups to have had a grant.

University spinouts

Manchester and Sheffield lead the North's 171 VC-backed university spinouts

VC-backed spinouts founded or based in the North, by parent university or by sector.

Open the full map → · Source: Dealroom.co

Defence and dual-use

Defence and dual-use in the North of England

How the North of England's defence and dual-use startups compare with the rest of the UK, and how fast their value has grown.

Defence and dual-use is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the North by value since 2021

The combined value of the North's VC-backed defence and dual-use companies went from $68M in 2021 to $261M in 2026, up 284%, faster than AI (up 56%) and deep tech (up 62%), against 43% for all VC-backed companies in the North. Only robotics grew faster. The largest are Mindgard, AegiQ and K3 Metrology.

The North of England now has 12% of the UK's defence and dual-use startups, one of the highest shares in the UK

The North has 67 of the UK's 539 defence and dual-use startups. 13 of them are VC-backed (19%, against 36% in London), 8% of the UK's VC-backed ones (13 of 163).

Defence and dual-use: companies with Dealroom's Defence, Defence Applications or Dual-Use Tech tag. Source: Dealroom, 19 Oct 2026.

Academia

North of England's academic flywheel

North of England's universities ranked by spinouts, deep tech spinouts, alumni-founded companies, founder alumni and alumni unicorns, then the North against London, Cambridge and Oxford.

Talent

The North’s companies produce founders

Former employees of 21 North of England companies have founded 225 UK startups. Each row is a company, in founding order; each dot is a startup its alumni founded after leaving.

Quarterly report

North of England's latest quarter in venture capital

VC raised by North of England-headquartered companies in the quarter shown, against the quarter before and the same quarter a year earlier.

Largest rounds

Largest funding rounds in North of England

A live treemap of the largest VC rounds. Each cell is one verified VC round into North of England-headquartered companies (excluding mature and outside-tech companies), grouped by Dealroom sector.

Breakouts and scaleups

Breakouts and Scaleups in the North

UK comparison

How North of England stacks up in the UK

North of England against other UK regions and cities. Switch between combined EV, EV growth and a growth × size view, and expand the table for the full ranking. Below, its growth over time against London and Cambridge.

Europe comparison

How North of England stacks up in Europe

North of England against European countries. Switch between combined EV, EV growth and a growth × size view, and expand the table for the full ranking. Below, its growth over time against leading countries.

UK regions

The North's place in the UK

Share of GDP against share of venture capital, how often companies reach the next round and the big outcomes, growth in value, and VC per person against Europe's large metros.

Germany and Spain each have a second hub with a third of national VC; the North has 3.7% of the UK's

Munich raises 34% of Germany's VC and Berlin 32%; Barcelona 42% of Spain's and Madrid 34%. In the UK, after London, Cambridge raises 12% and the North of England 3.7%.

The North produces 19.5% of UK GDP but raises 3.7% of its venture capital

23.4% of the UK's people live in the North. Its companies raised $1.7B of VC in 2024 and 2025, out of $45.1B across the UK.

15% of the North's Series A companies go on to raise a Series B, the lowest of England's regions

From pre-seed to seed the North converts 15% of companies, against 23% in London. From seed to Series A it is 16%, and from Series A to Series B 15%. The North has too few Series B companies for a Series B to C rate.

1.1% of the North's funded startups became $1B companies, against 1.8% in London

Of 1,755 northern companies that raised $100K or more, 27 went on to raise $100M or more and 19 are valued at $1B or more.

The North's median rounds are 29–50% smaller than London's at every stage

The median Series A in the North is $6.9M, against $10M in London; the median Series B $12.4M, against $24.8M.

The North's startups grew 7.2 times in value from 2015 to 2025, third fastest of England's regions

Their combined enterprise value went from $8.9B to $64.3B. Across the UK it grew 7.5 times.

The North raises $52 of VC per person a year, in the bottom half of Europe's large metros

London raises $1,631 per person. Of 42 European metros with 1.5 million people or more, the North ranks 33 on VC per person.

North against London

How the North compares with London

The startup funnel, how often startups from one founding cohort reached each milestone, and the size of their funding rounds.

London has 5 times the North's funded startups and 9 times its unicorns

The North has 1,653 startups that raised $100K or more and 18 unicorns; London has 8,758 and 161. 10.8% of the North's startups have raised $15M or more, against 17.6% in London.

A London startup was 3 times as likely as a northern one to become a unicorn

Of the startups founded in 2010–2019 that raised $100K or more, 10.8% in the North went on to raise $15M or more, against 19% in London and 16.3% across the UK. 0.57% reached $1B, against 1.7% in London.

Northern rounds are 29–50% smaller than London's at every stage

The median Series A in the North is $6.9M, against $10M in London; the median Series B $12.4M, against $25M.

Investors

Who invests in the North of England

Where the North of England's VC comes from, compared with the UK, and the investors most active in the region, 2022–2026 (2026 to date).

London investors supply 39% of the North's VC, more than any other source

Investors based in the North supplied 11%; UK investors as a whole supplied 61%, against 32% across the UK. US investors supplied 17% of the North's VC, against 39% across the UK. UK investors' share is higher in the North at every round size, from 77% of the money in rounds under $15M (55% across the UK) to 43% in rounds of $100M and above (21%).

The most active investors in the North of England

Northern Gritstone, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, Northstar Ventures and the North East Innovation Fund are based in the North. PXN Group is the most active overall, with 57 rounds at 45 northern companies.

Most active investors

#	Investor	Based in	Rounds	Companies
1	PXN Group	London	57	45
2	Northern Gritstone	Manchester · North of England	52	34
3	SFC Capital	London	47	38
4	Mercia Asset Management	Henley-in-Arden · Rest of the UK	47	33
5	Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund	Sheffield · North of England	38	31
6	Maven Capital Partners	Glasgow · Rest of the UK	36	29
7	Northstar Ventures	Newcastle upon Tyne · North of England	34	22
8	Business Growth Fund	London	29	26
9	North East Innovation Fund	Newcastle upon Tyne · North of England	17	14
10	PXN Ventures	Edinburgh · Rest of the UK	16	16

Investors ranked by VC rounds at companies headquartered in the North of England, 2022–2026 (2026 to date). The North East Innovation Fund includes the North East Small Loan Fund. Crowdfunding platforms, accelerators and closed investors are not included.

Source: Dealroom, 17 Oct 2026.

Ecosystem map

The organisations behind North of England startups

67 universities, programmes, investors and partners, from research to scale-up.

Open the full map → · Source: Dealroom.co