After launching in Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region, Prolific North is bringing its GRAFT Regional Tech Champions initiative to the North East to explore the people, businesses and ideas shaping the region’s fast-growing tech sector.
Backed by Leighton, Muckle LLP, and UNW, the North East edition will feature a dedicated editorial series over the next 12 months, taking a closer look at the strengths, opportunities and challenges facing the region’s tech sector.
This coverage will explore everything from key growth sectors, emerging tech clusters, investment activity, talent, scale-up ambitions and the future potential of the North East’s AI Growth Zone.
READ MORE: Where Greater Manchester’s tech growth is happening — and what’s driving it
As part of the initiative, an invite-only roundtable event will take place in July, bringing together tech leaders, advisers and ecosystem builders from across the region to discuss some of their biggest opportunities and challenges.
Alex Craig, partner and head of commercial at Muckle, said: “The North East’s tech sector is continuing its strong trajectory of growth, with ambitious businesses scaling at pace and attracting increasing national attention.
“As a firm, we work closely with innovative companies across the region and see the quality of talent, entrepreneurship and collaboration that exists here every day. Supporting initiatives like GRAFT Regional Tech Champions in the North East is about recognising that momentum and helping shine a light on the businesses and individuals driving the sector forward.”
Alastair Wilson, Tax Partner at UNW, added: “The North East tech sector has real momentum behind it, with businesses across the region continuing to innovate, attract investment and grow.
“At UNW, we work with a wide range of entrepreneurial and high-growth businesses and see first-hand the pace, ambition and challenges within the sector. We’re excited to be involved in the GRAFT Regional Tech Champions initiative alongside Leighton and Muckle LLP, supporting a platform focused on the people, businesses and ideas shaping the future of tech in the North East.”
And James Bunting, CEO of Leighton and the current Chair of the Advisory Board for Dynamo North East, said: “Leighton is proud to be part of the North East’s thriving and ambitious tech community. Our region has a story that deserves to be told with real passion, depth and ambition. Hard work, grit and determination have always been at the heart of the North East and today that spirit is reflected in a vibrant ecosystem of founders, product businesses, engineering teams, universities, investors and community organisations doing work of genuine national – and international – significance.
“From software engineering, cloud, data and AI to gaming, fintech, healthtech and immersive technology, the breadth and strength of the region’s tech landscape is far greater than many outside the North East realise. We’re also well connected to one another through not-for-profits like Dynamo North East. It’s a true hub for innovation, driven by exceptional talent, a growing ecosystem, and a genuinely collaborative mindset.
“Our involvement in GRAFT’s Regional Champion Programme is about more than celebrating what already exists. It’s about strengthening connections across that ecosystem, attracting talent and investment, supporting businesses to scale, and giving the next generation of tech leaders the confidence to build world-class companies from the North East. GRAFT could be a real platform for this region and that’s why we’ve made the decision to support it.
“Having sponsored the GRAFT event in Manchester we have seen first-hand the impact it can have in bringing communities together to spark ideas, build meaningful relationships and unlock new opportunities so we’re excited to help bring that energy to the North East. For Leighton, this is about playing our part, we want to back the region by championing collaboration, and supporting the platforms and partnerships that will power its future, ensuring the North East is deservedly recognised as one of the UK’s most exciting and credible tech communities.”
If you’re a tech business based in the North East or part of the wider ecosystem, get in touch at [email protected] if you’d like to get involved in the editorial series and/or roundtable discussion.
And if you’re interested in tech, Prolific North recently launched a dedicated weekly tech newsletter, GRAFT, which you can sign up for here.
