Brighton

By

Emma J

Last Updated: 11, September 2024
  Number of Digital Jobs
  Digital GVA
  High Growth Firms
  Startup Births
  Average Advertised Digital Salary
  Tech Sector Growth Potential

What’s there

Brighton is where the arts fuse with technology. This seaside city is home to a plethora of digital advertising and marketing agencies, design studios and gaming studios.

Its strengths, however, are developing across the digital tech spectrum, supported by talent from the University of Sussex as well as Wired Sussex, a membership organisation which acts as a hub and initiator for the digital tech community.

What’s more, Brighton is awash with tech events with hackathons, skills swaps and Meetups taking place every day across the city.

What’s new

Brighton’s gaming sector is going from strength to strength as small studios, including offshoots of Black Rock, expand. Studio Gobo has launched a second mobile development studio, while West Pier Studio has expanded its team to 30. The Brighton Games Collective co-working space, meanwhile, is helping to foster new talent and support freelancers.

There is more to Brighton than gaming, however. The online accountancy firm Crunch saw its turnover expand by 34% from 2015 to 2016 and was featured in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 list of fastest-growing technology companies.

What’s up next

Perhaps unsurprisingly in a city that is home to successful festivals like the Brighton Digital Festival, tickets to last year’s Brighton SEO sold out within 13 minutes. Now, the UK’s biggest search marketing event is looking for a bigger venue for 2017.

  • Giles Palmer

    Founder and CEO, Brandwatch

    What we do

    Brandwatch is the world’s leading social intelligence company. Our flagship products, Brandwatch Analytics and the Vizia platform, fuel smarter decision making for more than 1,200 brands and agencies, including Unilever, Whirlpool, British Airways, Asos, Walmart and Dell.

    Why Brighton?

    There’s a kind of quirkiness and a collaborative element to Brighton, as well as a ‘look after each other’ attitude that’s a big part of our culture. Being in Brighton has helped to maintain those parts of our character which are aligned to the town.

  • Alex Vaidya

    Co-Founder & CEO, StoryStream

    What we do

    StoryStream removes the complexity from the management of content, so marketers can focus on creating engaging, in-the-moment brand stories for customers.

    Our smart content platform enables marketers to optimise the use of both user and brand-generated content at scale and across multi-channel touchpoints to drive customer engagement and conversions.

    Why Brighton?

    Brighton thrives on a vibrant and creative environment. Organisations such as Wired Sussex foster an excellent ecosystem of digital, media and technology talent which young digital tech startups like us can draw from.

Economic stats

12,614 Number of Digital Jobs Number of digital jobs – An estimation of employment in the digital tech industries and the digital tech economy. The APS has allowed us to capture digital embeddedness, that is digital experts working in non-digital industries. It also coves freelancers and self-employed workers. (Source: ONS Annual Population Survey)

0.92 Digital Concentration Digital concentration / Location quotient (LQ) – Indicates the geographic concentration of digital business turnover relative to the UK. A value of one indicates average digital concentration, while a value of greater than one indicates a higher concentration. (Source: BSD)

£580 million Digital GVA GVA (Gross Value Added) – Average digital GVA between 2013-2015. GVA measures the contribution of each economic unit by estimating the value of an output (goods or services) less the value of inputs used in that output’s production process. (Source: ABS/BSD) .

18.50% High Growth Firms High growth businesses – Proportion of digital tech businesses classified as high growth. Refers to businesses with 10 or more employees that are in the top 10% of all companies in terms of growth. (Source BSD, 2015).

218 Startup Births Startup births – Average number of startup births 2011 – 2015 (Source: BSD)

44,608 Average Advertised Digital Salary Average Advertised Digital Salary – Digital tech economy average salary (2016) in each cluster (source: Burning Glass)

Standard of living

7.52 Life Satisfaction Life satisfaction – Life satisfaction (10 pt scale, ONS data)

£419,019 Average House Price Average House Price – Semi Detached Average House Price (Land Registry, Dec 2016)

9.4 Housing Affordability Ratio Housing affordability ratio – House price to salary ratio

Cost of doing business

26.5 Commercial Rent Per Annum (£ sq/ft) Commercial Rent Per Annum (£ sq/ft) – Prime office rents (JLL< 2016)

What local startups say is good

93% Overall Quality of Life
92% Tech Sector Growth Potential
88% Strength of Digital Economy

What local startups say is a challenge

53% Limited Supply of Appropriate Property on Competitive Terms
47% Poor Transport Infrastructure
42% Poor Digital Infrastructure
Download more details on survey responses for this cluster