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

What's there

Brighton is where the arts fuse with technology. This seaside city is home to a plethora of digital advertising and marketing agencies, design studios and gaming studios.

Its strengths, however, are developing across the digital tech spectrum, supported by talent from the University of Sussex as well as Wired Sussex, a membership organisation which acts as a hub and initiator for the digital tech community.

What’s more, Brighton is awash with tech events with hackathons, skills swaps and Meetups taking place every day across the city.

What's new

Brighton’s gaming sector is going from strength to strength as small studios, including offshoots of Black Rock, expand. Studio Gobo has launched a second mobile development studio, while West Pier Studio has expanded its team to 30. The Brighton Games Collective co-working space, meanwhile, is helping to foster new talent and support freelancers.

There is more to Brighton than gaming, however. The online accountancy firm Crunch saw its turnover expand by 34% from 2015 to 2016 and was featured in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 list of fastest-growing technology companies.

What's up next

Perhaps unsurprisingly in a city that is home to successful festivals like the Brighton Digital Festival, tickets to last year’s Brighton SEO sold out within 13 minutes. Now, the UK’s biggest search marketing event is looking for a bigger venue for 2017.

  • Giles Palmer

    Founder and CEO, Brandwatch

    What we do

    Brandwatch is the world’s leading social intelligence company. Our flagship products, Brandwatch Analytics and the Vizia platform, fuel smarter decision making for more than 1,200 brands and agencies, including Unilever, Whirlpool, British Airways, Asos, Walmart and Dell.

    Why Brighton?

    There’s a kind of quirkiness and a collaborative element to Brighton, as well as a ‘look after each other’ attitude that’s a big part of our culture. Being in Brighton has helped to maintain those parts of our character which are aligned to the town.

  • Alex Vaidya

    Co-Founder & CEO, StoryStream

    What we do

    StoryStream removes the complexity from the management of content, so marketers can focus on creating engaging, in-the-moment brand stories for customers.

    Our smart content platform enables marketers to optimise the use of both user and brand-generated content at scale and across multi-channel touchpoints to drive customer engagement and conversions.

    Why Brighton?

    Brighton thrives on a vibrant and creative environment. Organisations such as Wired Sussex foster an excellent ecosystem of digital, media and technology talent which young digital tech startups like us can draw from.

Economic stats

12,614 Number of Digital Jobs ?
0.92 Digital Concentration ?
£580 million Digital GVA ?
18.50% High Growth Firms ?
218 Startup Births ?
44,608 Average Advertised Digital Salary ?

Standard of living

7.52 Life Satisfaction ?
£419,019 Average House Price ?
9.4 Housing Affordability Ratio ?

Cost of doing business

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

What local startups say is good

93% Overall Quality of Life
92% Tech Sector Growth Potential
88% Strength of Digital Economy

What local startups say is a challenge

53% Limited Supply of Appropriate Property on Competitive Terms
47% Poor Transport Infrastructure
42% Poor Digital Infrastructure
Download more details on survey responses for this cluster