Birmingham and the wider West Midlands area is the fastest growing tech hub in the UK with 11% growth in tech investment between 2020-2025. (Tech Nation)  

London remains the UK’s largest tech hub by far, with 68% of all VC investment, but there is growing evidence that hubs outside of the London-Oxford-Cambridge triangle are becoming increasingly important for the future of UK tech.

The Growth of Birmingham's Tech Hub

Moving from a traditional industrial and manufacturing base, the Birmingham area is now witnessing high growth in tech startups, VC investment and an expansion of the tech talent pool. This growth is supported by four Innovate UK Catapult centres (Connected Places, Energy Systems, High Value Manufacturing and the Satellite Applications Catapult), Birmingham Tech Week (which is the UK’s largest regional tech festival), the Birmingham Health Innovation campus (BHIC), and other talent hubs and innovation centres.

With 3 research intensive universities: Birmingham, Warwick and Aston, a steady pipeline of STEM graduates, lower cost office space, good transport links (including the ongoing HS2 high-speed rail project) and a strong tech ecosystem, the West Midlands region is outperforming other European cities such as Berlin and Istanbul.

Birmingham Startups and Scale-ups

The result is that there are now more startups in Birmingham than any other UK city outside London - more than 35k startups were launched in the West Midlands area in the first half of 2025.  

These companies operate in a diverse range of sectors, including FinTech, MedTech, Quantum Computing, CleanTech, Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence. Notable companies include:

Incicio AI, a fintech AI startup with £2.6m in VC funding. Won Birmingham Tech Week’s ‘One To Win’ pitch competition (2025). The company has developed a virtual agent that uses conversational AI to provide consumers with financial support and help organizations conduct affordability assessments more efficiently.  

Delta.g, a quantum computing spin-out from the University of Birmingham with £4.6m in seed funding. Won the Institute of Physics (IOP) qBIG Prize (2025) for quantum innovation highlighting pioneering work in developing the "Google Maps for the subsurface" using quantum gravity sensors for precise underground mapping.  

Rootwave (Ubiqutek Ltd): a sustainable agritech scale-up that uses electricity to kill weeds. With $15M late-stage VC investment (2025).

CyberQ Group, a leading global cyber security company with CREST accreditation and £2.5M funding.

GridEdge, an AI smart energy spin-out from Aston University, with total funding of £5m. Recognised as Scale-up of the Year at Birmingham Tech Week (2025), Grid Edge provides AI solutions that optimize energy management in commercial buildings, helping them achieve net-zero targets.

EvoPhase, uses AI to optimise industrial designs and processes. Launched by the University of Birmingham Enterprise in 2023, the innovative platform autonomously designs, tests, and optimises manufacturing and production equipment using evolutionary algorithms. Won Startup of the Year at Birmingham Tech Week (2025).

Investment

However, there remain challenges. Startup investment is an issue, with funding concentrated in London based companies leading to a risk that startups will relocate in order to secure necessary investment for growth - Aceleron Energy, a sustainable battery developer based in Bromsgrove, went into administration after failing to secure funding and its assets were acquired in 2024.  

Even after securing large funding rounds, Birmingham’s startups have other challenges and do not always survive - Conigital, a deep tech, AI driverless vehicle startup which raised $500m in 2023 has since gone into liquidation, also Onto, an electric vehicle subscription service, with $175m funding called in the administrators in 2023.  

Recruitment

Another challenge is recruitment. There is a skills gap for experienced professionals despite the strong talent pool, with an increase in competition for talent from the growing number of startups and the demand for AI skills.  

Salaries are typically 25% (or more) lower on average than London due to higher costs in the capital – at around £60k for a senior software engineer role in Birmingham compared to £75k in London (Glassdoor). Interestingly, this only applies to on-site or hybrid working, where there is the need to be in the office.  

This means startups and scale-ups in Birmingham have to do more to compete with London for sought-after talent - AI Engineers, machine learning engineers, data scientists, cyber security specialists, Python and Java software engineers, cloud developers etc.  

Too, Birmingham's tech sector is experiencing "leaking" potential, with fewer companies scaling to a size that requires significant office space compared to cities like Manchester.

Partnerships with universities to offer apprenticeships, internships and more focused training has gone some way to retain graduates in the city but the lure of London for more advanced career opportunities, higher salaries and a greater density of tech companies attracts ambitious mid-senior level professionals.  

Richard Wheeler Associates

Richard Wheeler Associates works with technology-led startups and scale-ups to recruit highly skilled, specialist people.

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