Nottingham Partners kicked off 2023 with a collaboration event with data platform, Beauhurst.
Invest in Nottingham recently commissioned Beauhurst to create a report on High Growth Nottinghamshire, shining a spotlight on Nottingham and Nottinghamshire’s high growth companies, top sectors, and investors. The report is available to view here.
We were also delighted to welcome six of Marketing Nottingham’s eight new board members to the event. Find out more about the new board here.
We invited experts on Nottinghamshire’s High Growth scene to take part on a panel hosted by Beauhurst’s Head of Research and Consultancy, Henry Whorwood.
The panel featured the following experts:
- Matt Denman, Co-Founder and CEO of Podium
- Dr Victoria Kroll, Co-Founder and CEO of Esitu Solutions Ltd
- Hannah Tapsell, Investment Manager at Mercia Asset Management PLC
- Dr James Duncan, Life Sciences Executive, Nottingham Technology Ventures Ltd
The panel were asked ‘What makes Nottingham so great for high growth businesses?’. They unanimously agreed our geographical location is hard to beat. With fast an easy access to the rest of the country (89% of the population is within a 4 hour drive), Nottingham is the perfect hub for businesses looking for talent across the country.
Our universities were also a winning feature amongst the panel. The universities are doing ground-breaking research in areas such as AI and healthcare. And our 75,000 students per year develop into a strong talent pool for Nottingham’s businesses. Victoria talked highly of the Universities in actively supporting spin out companies like her own.
Matt Denman also put a spotlight on the strength in developed talent from the tech and financial services corporations within Nottinghamshire. Companies such as Experian and Capital One are hubs for growing talent, with many of their alumni starting their own successful high growth businesses.
Henry highlighted that 2022 was a record year for investment into Nottinghamshire headquartered companies, with £750 million of investment in Nottingham.
One of the main focuses of that investment was AI. James mentioned there has been large growth in engineering and AI in Nottingham, as well as biomedicine and interfaces between the two sectors. Nottingham is historically very strong in drug development so this growth builds on our past strengths.
Hannah echoed that some of Nottingham’s future promise lies in life sciences with many of Mercia’s recent investments in the region being in that field. Hannah also recognised software and net zero and green tech as huge growing sectors.
It was clear from the panel discussions and the questions posed by the audience that Nottingham and Nottinghamshire are in a very strong place for High Growth businesses and as a collective, it is important our business network supports these efforts moving forward.
Our next event will be on Nottingham’s target to be Carbon Neutral by 2028 and how our businesses are integral to making that happen. Find out more here.