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Five tech startups launch per hour as business formations reach new record in 2019
More than five new tech startups launched every hour in 2019, contributing to a record 681,704 new business formations over the year – a 2.8% increase from 2018. These are some of the findings from the Centre for Entrepreneur’s sixth annual analysis of Companies House data.
- Over 45,000 tech startups were launched, representing 6.6% of all new businesses. 17,401 of these were in London (8.2% of total), while tech startups comprised 28% of all new businesses launched in Bournemouth, Pool and Christchurch.
- For the first time, CFE has analysed industry classification codes. Companies were launched in over 700 industries as varied as raising of llamas and alpacas (10), driving schools (429) and repair of watches and jewelry (141).
- 14,363 take-away food shops and mobile food stands registered in 2019, greatly outnumbering licensed restaurants (9,405) and unlicensed restaurants and cafes (7,182). Ten new wine producers, 314 brewing companies and 347 distillery businesses launched in the year.
- London business formations increased 2.4% to 221,373. While Birmingham outperforms Manchester in absolute terms (14,509 vs 9,064), the latter is more entrepreneurial when considering population size. This is not the case in Scotland, where Glasgow retains an absolute and per capital lead against Edinburgh.
- Strong figures per capita in Cheshire East, Salford, Trafford and Stockport also set the North West ahead of its Northern Powerhouse counterparts, leaving the North East and Yorkshire and Humber alongside Wales, Scotland and the South West as the five least entrepreneurial areas of the country.
Read the release
Download the data
Covered in:
News
- A Boris bounce for business: Orders are up and optimism from bosses hits highest level since September 2018 (Daily Mail)
- Micro-businesses spend ten weeks a year trying to sort their finances (UK Tech News covers Starling research)
- Saturday jobs dying as teen employment halves, Resolution Foundation says (BBC)
- Game calls for ‘realistic’ rents as it closes 40 stores across the UK (CityAM)
Opinion
- Hunting for Hinzelmann, or: Helping towns without magical thinking (Stian Westlake, former university minister advisor)
- Estonia’s digital state shows the way for Whitehall reform (Philip Salter, founder, The Entrepreneurs Network)
- Small business priorities for a new parliament (Lee Hopley, deputy director, Enterprise Research Centre)
- Poland’s venture capital market: inexperienced, not ‘toxic’ (Maija Palmer, senior reporter, Sifted)
- How to reform and improve the Apprenticeship Levy (Daniel Rossal-Valentine, head of campaign, This is Engineering, Royal Academy of Engineering)
- From empathy to exodus: Four futures for the UK economy (Alan Lockey, head of the Future of Work Centre, RSA)
- Haters (Paul Graham)
- US VCs are coming, and it’s no friendly football match (Francois Veron, co-founder, Newfund)
Features
- CityAM: The sweetest thing: Ben & Jerry’s CEO on why businesses need a higher purpose
- Mail on Sunday: The magician who wants to conjure up £5bn to launch small firms: Growth fund boss (Stephen Welton) on why more support from the government is vital
- Guardian: ‘Guys ask for more money’: Why female-led spinouts under-perform
- PUBLIC: PUBLIC’s 2020 govtech wish list
- Forbes: How co-working spaces are supporting a revolution in Libya’s business world
- First Round: The 30 best pieces of advice for entrepreneurs in 2019
Upcoming CFE events
- 21st January: Why we need more female founders – A NEF Fast Track event, featuring Layla Sargent (Seam and SUPA), Anna Cameron (Babysitters Of) and Lu Li (Blooming Founders)
- 3rd March: An audience with George Bevis (Tide)
- 11-12th March: The 3rd CFE Incubator and Accelerator Network annual conference