South Yorkshire: pathway to scale

A region on the rise. South Yorkshire tech is now worth over £3B. It combines top talent sources with industrial heritage and healthy spinout pipeline. Ecosystem unpacked in data, with TechSY.

Key findings

• South Yorkshire startups were worth a combined £3.1B in 2025, up from £326M in 2015, but still below the £4.7B the ecosystem was worth in 2021 and 2022.
• South Yorkshire startups raised over £360M in VC since 2020, and 2025 was a record year for early-stage funding, with £35M raised in Series A rounds.
• Deep tech is South Yorkshire's top-funded sector with £121M raised since 2022, ahead of transportation on £97M and energy and fintech on £82M each.
• The University of Sheffield ranks 8th among UK universities for research-driven deep tech and life science entrepreneurship, ahead of Leeds in 15th.
• South Yorkshire startups raised no late-stage VC at all between 2022 and 2025, against £1.7B in Helsinki and £3.4B in Pittsburgh over the same period.