Following the recent launch of Tech Nation, we will be running a series of profile pieces on each of the digital clusters featured in the report.
The emerging digital technology community in East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire is focused around Hull. In the past, the region has seen the emergence of a range of locally grown tech companies such as Trident, Ebuyer and Summit who collectively employ over 600 people.
A wide range of startups have also been set up in the area, backed by the Wykeland Group‘s £15m investment into C4DI Digital Hub, a co-working space set to launch its own accelerator this year.
C4DI co-founder John Connolly believes companies in the area have pivoted strategically embrace digital technologies: “Hull’s digital cluster reflects an established service sector and a growing startup scene as well as innovative companies that pre-date digital but have pivoted to become digital.”
Over 12,000 people are now employed in digital business across the cluster which has been partly fuelled by the excellent computer sciences department at the University of Hull. Along with this pool of digitally-enabled students to tap into, tech companies in the area are boosted by a high-speed fibre optic network provided by Kingston Communications.
The city also boasts the fantastic Platform Studios who are showcasing at the Games Development Conference in San Francisco. Here’s what their founder Lindsay West had to say on being part of the emerging tech cluster in Hull: “The Platform Studios are a dynamic collaborative of young entrepreneurial tech businesses based in Hull and Grimsby. We specialise in game and software development and with the ViSR both VR hardware and software development. Creating a new global hub in The Humber Region and enabling start ups to remain and be supported here.”
The growth of the cluster have led to PwC, Ebuyer and Amazon Web Services all supporting hubs in the area.
Three example companies were profiled in the report:
To find out more information about Hull’s digital cluster, download the Tech Nation report, view it online or visit our core project partner DueDil’s Online Interactive Guide on the area.