A hotbed for tech startups: boosting investment, talent and ecosystem with Darren Balcombe, Team SY

Can you feel it? Can you hear it? Yes, it's the blistering, crackling heat from the South Yorkshire Tech 100 – the "hottest" startups and scaleups in the region, published today in a new ecosystem report.

It lists the most successful tech companies born since the start of 2000 with headquarters in South Yorkshire and emerging startups with tremendous growth potential. Between them they employ 4,000 people.

And it shows tech startup equity funding into South Yorkshire’s early-stage tech companies has doubled in the last four years to more than £52m.

Darren Balcombe, Deputy CEO at Capital Enterprise and Team SY lead, tells us what's changed to enable such a growth in investment, why now is a critical time for the region, and how we will nurture more entrepreneurs.

He also covers why South Yorkshire is a brilliant place for a tech startup, the importance of social-purpose driven firms in the Tech 100, and has must-listen advice on applying for grants from organisations like Innovate UK.

South Yorkshire is now home to more than 3,000 tech startups; Darren wants to "turn its emerging startup scene into a strong, self-sustaining engine of innovation and growth,  so that South Yorkshire can be home to many more global leaders" – he tells me how.

What next?

• Team SY’s South Yorkshire Tech 100 report
• Thanks for listening, to interviewee Darren of Team SY: weareteamsy.org and Capital Enterprise: capitalenterprise.org and to SheffieldLIve! for broadcasting the show.