North of Tyne Combined Authority boosts local female-founded tech startups

The North East is becoming home to an accelerated number of female-founded digital technology startups, thanks to sustained investment from North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA).

The UK’s technology sector struggles when it comes to gender balance; only one in four tech sector workers are women. An alarming statistic when compared to the labour market as a whole, where 50 per cent of workers are women.

Moreover, women make up less than 5 per cent of UK tech startup founders, with numbers even lower in North East England than the already pitiful national average. Yet there are some indications of green shoots ahead for the region, according to local technology sector expert Jamie Hardesty.

Jamie, who is head of communications and stakeholder engagement at tech sector support organisations Sunderland Software City, Dynamo and Digital Catapult North East Tees Valley, commented: “It is no great revelation to say that we desperately need more female founded tech companies in the North East.

“Diversity and inclusion remain a perennial challenge for tech ecosystems across the UK, we are no different. However, it has been pleasing to see an increased number of female-founded tech startups emerge in our region in the last six to eighteen months.

“While we have much work to do in this space, there are encouraging signs of increased female activity, as evident across numerous NTCA digital support programmes.”

NTCA has invested £10m to support the growth of the digital sector across the North of Tyne, pursuing an ambition of digital growth and innovation.

Over the next five years the North of Tyne digital economy aims to create 1,300 new tech businesses, increase tech company revenues by £425m and support 10,000 new tech employees to enter the workforce, all underpinned by 99 per cent of the region being connected to gigabit fibre/5G infrastructure.

Flagship sector support programmes include Digital Pathfinders, Digital Cluster and Digital Business Pipeline, which aims to grow the number of new technology businesses emerging in the sector via industry-leading activity such as the Ignite accelerator.

Almost two in five business leaders supported by Digital Pathfinders have been women while Ignite North of Tyne has so far supported 37 high potential tech startups, 35 per cent of which have been made up of at least one female founder.

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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