Partner Article

Salford outperforms London for startup growth

DueDil, the company information platform, has conducted an in-depth study into the startup growth in the UK in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the first quarter of last year to find the UK’s startup hotspot for 2017.

The study reveals, that Salford is the one to watch, producing 1,393 new startups in the first quarter of this year. Beating major UK cities, Salford experienced an impressive startup growth rate of 85% for the same period in 2016.

Following in second place was Leicester, which experienced a healthy startup growth rate of 34% YoY. Joining Salford and Leicester in the top 5 for UK’s startup growth hotspots are Norwich, Liverpool, and Oxford.

London experienced a modest startup growth rate of 5% YoY. However, despite failing to clinch a spot in the top five for startup growth, London continued to produce more startups than anywhere else in the UK, with 57,235 new companies starting up in the capital in the first quarter of 2017.

Despite the comparatively slower growth, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, and Leeds are the top producers of startups during the period of January to March 2017.

Overall 173,100 new companies started up in the UK between January and March 2017, representing an overall decrease from the same period in 2016.

Justin Fitzpatrick, COO and Co-Founder of DueDil said, “Interestingly, just a handful of the UK’s major cities made the overall top 20 for startup growth, with cities such as London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Leeds all absent from the top rankings, suggesting that they are slowly losing their grip on their status as the UK’s startup growth.” He added, “The overall decrease in startup growth across the UK, is perhaps demonstrating a cautious attitude towards enterprise with Brexit looming. Banks and alternative finance providers have an opportunity to play a role in growth through investment.”

Based on the startup numbers from last year and the startup growth for the first quarter of 2017, DueDil have calculated a forecast for the rest of 2017;

• If Salford maintains its impressive startup growth rate, the northern city could be on course to produce 5,286 new businesses in 2017, a huge increase of 2,436 from the previous year.
• London will remain the city that produces the largest number of startups overall, producing 223,966 new companies in 2017 if startup growth continues at the same rate. This would mean that 10,902 more startups will launch in 2017 than in 2016.
• London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds will maintain their position in the top five UK cities for producing the most startups.
• Based on their startup growth rate, Leicester can expect to produce an estimated 4,813 new companies for the whole of 2017.

The total projected figure for all startups in 2017 is 668,759 companies, this represents a drop of 17,096 companies compared to 2016.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by DueDil .