Number of Digital Jobs
Digital GVA
High Growth Firms
Startup Births
Average Advertised Digital Salary
Tech Sector Growth Potential

What's there

Leicester, the city where tourism was invented, is now buzzing with digital tech innovation too.

The city’s Cultural Quarter, home to its historic textiles industry, is being transformed into a hub for creative and digital tech startups. Here you will find workspaces such as LCB Depot and Phoenix Workspace, while beyond the city centre, the Dock acts as a hub for more than 50 high-tech businesses.

The University of Leicester boasts an award-winning data centre, a high performance computing research lab and offers support for spinout companies. De Montfort University’s Innovation Centre is also central to Leicester’s digital tech scene. Home to a range of tech and retail startups, it hosts support services, seminars and events as well as its startup society, established in 2015.

Meanwhile, Leicester Tech Startups supports the digital tech community beyond the universities. A group created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, it signposts the various lectures, hackathons and meetups going on in the area.

What's new

The largest ever Leicester Startup Weekend was held in February, including a hackathon, workshops and a series of talks.

What's up next

A promising initiative which aims to establish a city centre co-working space with collaboration from Leicester City Council, University of Leicester and De Montfort University.

What’s more, plans have been announced for a new enterprise zone covering three key industrial sites in Leicester and Loughborough. The Leicester Waterside site will build on the city’s reputation for space science. The enterprise zone aims to create 21,000 jobs and generate £123 million over the next 25 years.

  • Simon Cleaver

    CEO & Founder, CloudCall

    What we do

    CloudCall is a global provider of cloud-based communications. Its passion is to create integrated communications software that empowers users to engage and interact intuitively with their customers.

    Why Leicester?

    Being in Leicester provides CloudCall with the right environment to thrive. It gives us access to incredibly talented people who have enabled us to build and offer a world-class product and service.

  • Sophie Hainsworth and Jason Nesbitt

    Co-founders, LoyalFree

    What we do

    LoyalFree is a mobile phone app loyalty scheme which is used to collect rewards at local independent businesses. This allows businesses gain from customer analytics and brand exposure.

    Why Leicester?

    Building the business in our home town of Leicester has given us access to many great startup initiatives at the universities and through other institutions in the city.

Economic stats

23,173 Number of Digital Jobs ?
0.39 Digital Concentration ?
£437 million Digital GVA ?
12% High Growth Firms ?
244 Startup Births ?
40,131 Average Advertised Digital Salary ?

Standard of living

7.43 Life Satisfaction ?
£169,079 Average House Price ?
4.2 Housing Affordability Ratio ?

Cost of doing business

15.5 Commercial Rent Per Annum (£ sq/ft) ?

What local startups say is good

88% Overall Quality of Life
75% Cost of Living
56% Transport Infrastructure

What local startups say is a challenge

40% Lack of Supply of Highly Skilled Workers
40% Limited Opportunities to Access Finance
26% Limited Supply of Appropriate Property on Competitive Terms
Download more details on survey responses for this cluster