#welcome
If you’re a digital business looking to set up a new operation in Leeds City Region, then you could qualify for grant funding of £10,000 to £50,000 through the Leeds City Region Digital Inward Investment Fund.
Digital Technologies
Leeds City Region is fast emerging as a UK and international digital powerhouse. Its tech sector contributes £6.5 billion to the city region’s economy and is a leader in creative media, data analytics, cyber security, FinTech, telecoms, health and education technologies.
Leeds City Region has a flourishing digital creative sector, with 20 of the fastest-growing tech companies in the North of England, according to Northern Tech 100, and 13 of the Prolific North's Top 50 PR Agencies.
Leeds is also home to Screen Yorkshire and has been named as Channel 4’s new headquarters, with several hundred new creative industry jobs to be created in the city.
Major employers include Sky’s Digital & Technology Services Campus, which employs 650 members of staff focused on software and hardware development, Sky Betting & Gaming, with 1,500 people based in Leeds in a variety of tech roles, IT consultancy BJSS, business and education-sector ISP Exa Networks and telecoms infrastructure aql.
Innovations such as Data Mill North, the Open Data Institute and Leeds Institute for Data Analytics are harnessing the power of big data, while IXleeds is the UK’s only fully independent internet exchange outside of London.
Leeds also hosts the annual Leeds Digital Festival – one of the largest digital events in the UK. In 2018, Leeds Digital Festival hosted saw more tech events being hosted in the city than in San Francisco, with 170 events in over 60 venues across two weeks, attended by 20,000 people.