Our fifth in a series of thought leadership reports, Unlocking access to ecosystems, has been published in partnership with Beauhurst and funded by the UK Government, to provide a detailed view of the UK’s high-growth ecosystems.
This thought leadership report identifies high-growth companies and also highlights their various support nodes across the country. It provides a detailed and illustrative view of the various company lifecycles, that 48,000 active high-growth companies are currently navigating.
Organisations ranging from bootstrapped companies – where founders start up a business with minimal capital; up to the lifecycles of university spinouts, which are typically supported with resources and expertise from universities, are considered. Various key points along their growth trajectories are highlighted and explained.
Ecosystem components and the different working parts of a functional network are described. The report provides an introduction to support nodes, and dives into the pivotal roles that universities, accelerator programmes, investors and government bodies play, independently and collaboratively – to develop companies and the UK economy more widely, through job creation and innovation.
Readers can gain insights into the purpose and structures of the 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) across the UK, growth hubs, as well as central government departments and agencies, that all play a key part in developing the nation’s high-growth ecosystems.
Most companies within the UK are primarily based in London – due to its proximity to key investors, educational establishments, political centres, diverse talent pools and more. In the Borough of Camden alone, there are 165,000 companies (3.17%), the highest proportion of any local authority in the UK. By comparison the City of Birmingham is home to (1.83%) and Manchester (1.20%) of companies respectively. As of September 2023, 150 accelerator programmes (59.8%) which are offered in the UK, are based within London’s thriving ecosystem. A lot of work is currently underway to substantially diversify company population stats within the UK.
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