Looking beyond the Golden Triangle for the UK’s next deep-tech success stories
The UK’s technology strengths extend far beyond London, Oxford and Cambridge – and investors could be overlooking significant commercial opportunities in regional deep-tech clusters.
That is the argument made by Dame Anne Glover, Chief Executive of Amadeus Capital Partners, in a new UKTN opinion piece examining the potential of technology businesses developing outside the established Golden Triangle.
She argues that deep-tech companies based in regional clusters can receive less attention and face fewer competing bidders than comparable businesses in better-known locations. The challenge is no longer simply creating innovation, but ensuring that capital can identify promising companies and support them for long enough to scale.
This is particularly relevant to NETPark and the North East.
NETPark brings together more than 40 science and technology companies and over 1,000 people working across advanced electronics and materials, space, defence and security, and life sciences.
Businesses have access to specialist laboratories, cleanrooms and manufacturing space, alongside expertise from Durham University, CPI and national Catapult centres. A £100 million expansion has also added more than 285,000 sq ft of space for companies ready to increase research, development and production.
The growth of companies including Pragmatic Semiconductor, Kromek, Filtronic and Magnitude Biosciences demonstrates what can be achieved when specialist facilities, research expertise, business support and investment come together in one location.
Pragmatic Semiconductor, for example, developed its flexible integrated-circuit technology through a long-term partnership with CPI before attracting major private investment and moving into high-volume manufacturing. Its £182 million Series D round was the largest European semiconductor venture funding round of 2023.
As Dame Anne highlights, regional clusters do not need to copy Cambridge or Oxford. They need to build on their own research, industrial knowledge and specialist strengths – and connect ambitious businesses with investors who understand the technologies and timescales involved.
NETPark shows that the companies, skills and facilities already exist outside the Golden Triangle. The opportunity now is to ensure that more investors recognise their potential and provide the patient capital needed to help them grow in the places where they began.
