Hoberman-led Tech Nation pledges £10bn funding bonanza for start-ups
The start-up group revived by Brent Hoberman has pledged to fire up a £10bn investment bonanza for UK tech firms as it restarts operations after winding down earlier this year.
Tech Nation, founded in 2010 under then Prime Minister David Cameron, closed its doors in March after the government controversially pulled its funding and handed the money to Barclays’ Eagle Labs division.
The group’s brand and assets were then snapped up by Lastminute.com co-founder and serial entrepreneur Brent Hoberman’s Founders Forum Group.
As Tech Nation relaunched today at Birmingham Tech Week, its bosses pledged to spark a £10bn wave of investment into start-ups around the UK and said they would ensure half of the country’s early-stage tech firms hailed from outside the capital.
“The time is ripe for a new champion for the most exciting new businesses,” Hoberman said. “We will fight for their needs, not only by representing the interests of founders with government, but also by helping them to build connections and grow from start-up to scale-up.”
“In a tough funding environment, we will help the UK continue its momentum as the European magnet for technology entrepreneurs.”
The newly revived body will be headed by Founders Forum chief executive Carolyn Dawson, while HSBC Innovation Banking, formerly SVB UK before its collapse, has been drafted in as a founding partner.
Tech Nation’s £10bn pledge comes against a torrid backdrop for start-up funding in the UK as investment dries up against a backdrop of rising interest rates and inflation.
Investment into UK start-ups stabilised in the second quarter of the year but remained well down on blockbuster 2021 levels at $4.1bn (£3.4bn), according to KPMG.
The number of deals also fell by 23 per cent from 715 in the first quarter of this year.
Last week Tech Nation’s former chief executive Gerard Grech was appointed as head of Cambridge University’s Founders programme.