New HQ for Tech Nation as sector booms in city
TECH Nation, the governmentbacked network for tech entrepreneurs, has established a new northern HQ in Bonded Warehouse.
The organisation has taken up space on Lower Byrom Street, which is part of Allied London’s ABC Buildings project and the £1.35bn Enterprise City masterplan for St John’s.
It will see the network embed in the epicentre of the city’s next generation of tech companies.
Tech Nation announced the move while revealing the result of a study which found tech companies in Manchester had secured £200m in funding so far this year.
According to research, healthtech companies eLucid mHealth and Push Doctor, events startup TickX and fintech Shieldpay have benefited from significant investments.
The flow of funding is fueling Manchester’s transformation into a thriving tech hub, according to the tech entrepreneur network.
It also found Manchester’s digital tech sector grew steadily between 2006 and 2016, with a 130 per cent increase in the number of businesses formed per year.
In 2016, the last year that figures are available for, 531 digital tech businesses were formed in Manchester and increasingly the city is also becoming a hub for blockchain.
Turnover of the sector grew by 4pc last year, outstripping the growth of the wider economy. Billion dollar companies – known as unicorns – built in the north west in the last few years include boohoo, AO.com and The Hut Group.
Meanwhile, there is ongoing tech successes for firms like UKFast, the cloud-hosting business, retailer PrettyLittleThing, virtual reality company Immotion Group, and AccessPay, a specialist in cloudbased payments.
Chief executive of Tech Nation, Gerard Grech, said: “With several coworking spaces, private equity firms, a globally recognised university talent pool, as well as many fast growth companies, Manchester has outpaced Amsterdam and Dublin in tech investment growth over the last few years.”