No surprises as Manchester revealed as biggest UK tech hub outside of London

According to Level founder Joe Averill, who has advised multiple fast growing tech firms including The Modern Milkman, Manchester’s tech scene will become more dominant over the coming months and years

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The news is out.

Manchester is the biggest UK tech hub outside of London.

During 2022 a staggering £532m in funding was raised by tech firms operating within the city’s boundaries.

At the risk of seeming smug this comes as no surprise to me.

I’m fortunate as the founder of Level to regularly meet founders and employees of fast growth Manchester tech firms.

Listening to them, their ambitions, forethoughts, is a learning experience in itself.

Couple that with their current growth plans and future scalability and pictures are painted in your mind of what Manchester’s rising tech machine will look, feel and be like.

The sheer volume of companies rising through the ranks certainly adds up. And you can see the city’s jigsaw of offices growing to stay ahead / keep up with the pace of growth.

This growth is summarised best when you learn that the £532m in funding during 2022 is a 50 per cent increase on 2021.

Staggering really. And it has come so soon after the pandemic lockdowns and subsequent shifts to the way we all work.

To tie the knot so to speak, the latest data from DCMS also confirms that Manchester-based companies have collectively raised over £1.8 billion in venture capital funding in the past five years.

Level was honoured to advise The Modern Milkman on its move to a new workspace in Manchester city centre - and to also become its partner.

The grocery delivery startup has now raised a total of £50m having not too long ago closed a Series C funding round to fuel global expansion.

Other fast growth tech startups we have had the pleasure of working with in Manchester include Chatloop, Kitman Labs and GigPig.

Tech data specialist Dealroom estimates that 60,000 people are employed by 1,600 startups in Manchester.

This number will only grow, as will the funding both existing and new tech firms will raise.

Again, the future picture this paints across the city, is an exciting one.

Manchester is an agile destination with a small city centre footprint and boasts easy access to talented people, strong connectivity and solid transport infrastructure.

To think about the fact that the city is outperforming much bigger European cities - including  Rome, Brussels, Warsaw and Lisbon - says a lot about its dominant tech scene.

At Level, we look forward to meeting more fast growing tech companies and advising them on real estate strategies that align with their culture and growth ambitions.

After all, these are the companies that are helping a great deal when it comes to fuelling the north’s, and indeed the UK’s, economic growth.