Across the North, entrepreneurial ambition and midmarket strength are reshaping the region’s growth story. In the North West and Yorkshire & Humber in particular, businesses are scaling at pace where strategy, capital and capability align - attracting investment and talent, challenging established models, and building platforms for long term value creation.
While global uncertainty continues to test markets, these regions stand out not because they are insulated from disruption, but because many businesses are using it to accelerate change. Despite a more selective investment environment, momentum continues to build around high performing and innovative Northern businesses, reinforcing the region’s appeal as a long term growth opportunity
Northern Trailblazers highlights the strength and breadth of high performing businesses across the North. Drawing on our analysis of market trends and investor appetite, the series focuses on the characteristics that acquirers and investors consistently value in today’s environment.
Across the North, we see businesses growing with purpose, innovating to access new markets, building defensible positions in specialist niches, and embedding sustainability in a way that supports long term value creation. These attributes are shaping investment across the region and reinforcing its reputation as a centre of resilient, investable growth.
The Northern Trailblazers series brings these themes to life through businesses that demonstrate:
scaling ambition into sustainable momentum, supported by strong leadership, talent attraction and access to capital
converting technical expertise and entrepreneurial spirit into scalable solutions with national and international relevance.
competing globally through deep specialisation, hard to replicate capabilities and leadership in high value segments.
aligning commercial success with responsible growth, operational efficiency and measurable environmental and social outcomes.
Together, these businesses reflect the depth of opportunity across the North and the qualities that continue to attract capital in a more selective market.
Growth & Challenges: A region moving with intent
Ambition is being matched by execution, as entrepreneurs and business leaders are no longer waiting for perfect conditions and building momentum through innovation, collaboration and a renewed confidence in the region’s economic potential. From start-ups to established midmarket firms, the North is demonstrating that growth can be both resilient and inclusive when ecosystems work together.
From startup to scaleup: momentum across the North
Entrepreneurial confidence is translating into action. The North West recorded a 16.5% increase in new company incorporations in the first half of 2025, while Yorkshire & Humber continues to strengthen founder support through regional growth hubs.
Midmarket businesses – often underestimated – remain the backbone of this progress. By embracing digital tools, agile decision making and cross sector collaboration, they are accelerating growth and attracting both capital and talent.
The picture is equally compelling in the North East, where growth increased by 19%, highlighting untapped potential across the wider region. Sustaining this trajectory will depend on continued access to funding and connected ecosystems.
Turning challenges into advantage
Growth is not without its obstacles. The challenges facing Northern England’s businesses are well rehearsed: skills shortages, infrastructure gaps and access to scaleup funding. What is changing, however, is how leaders are responding.
Across the region, leaders are innovating through uncertainty, reallocating capital to higher growth opportunities and building inclusive, future ready cultures.
Momentum is sustained through collaboration – between business, investors, academia and the public sector – with a shared focus on productivity, skills and digital capability.
A standout example is Nexus, the innovation hub at the University of Leeds. In 2024, Nexus celebrated five years of supporting high growth businesses and entrepreneurs. Today, its community comprises more than 180 businesses that have collectively raised £134m in private investment and secured £34.15m in grant funding. Their innovations span sectors from vaccine patches and digital dentistry to next generation pet care, illustrating the depth and diversity of talent across the region.
A look across the North
The North West: where disruption turns into scale
The North West continues to assert itself as one of the UK’s most dynamic regional economies. With £2.3bn of private capital invested in 2024, the region has become a clear destination for founders and investors looking to back ambitious growth.
Manchester and Liverpool anchor a fast maturing ecosystem spanning technology, health innovation and advanced manufacturing. What differentiates the region is not just the volume of startups, but the strength of its midmarket businesses – organisations that combine entrepreneurial pace with the governance, capital discipline and operational resilience required to scale.
These businesses are: embedding digital transformation into core operations, advancing sustainability agendas across production and supply chains and partnering with academia to commercialise innovation.
With growth comes pressure. Talent shortages and infrastructure constraints remain real barriers to scale. Addressing them will be critical if the region is to convert momentum into lasting competitive advantage.
Yorkshire & Humber: innovation with intent
Yorkshire & Humber is quietly building one of the UK’s most compelling propositions for innovation led growth. £1.33bn of private investment in 2024 reflects growing confidence in the region’s ability to develop and scale future focused businesses.
Centres such as Leeds, Sheffield and Hull are seeing innovation translate into impact – from AI adoption in manufacturing, to clean energy solutions and digitally enabled consumer experiences. Midmarket organisations play a pivotal role, scaling proven ideas, strengthening supply chains and anchoring innovation locally.
Incubators and accelerators continue to play a vital role in backing early stage businesses, but unlocking the next phase of growth will depend on sustained investment in skills and leadership, access to capital that supports scale, and infrastructure that can keep pace with ambition. Yorkshire’s opportunity lies in its ability to join up innovation with execution.
Capital with intent
The North is attracting investment that sticks.
While UK foreign direct investment has been volatile since 2022, the North has been moving in the opposite direction – steadily increasing its share of inward investment even as overall project numbers declined nationally.
After tracking the slowdown in 2023, northern regions accelerated in 2024. Their share of UK FDI projects jumped from around 14% to 21% - not because volumes surged nationally, but because the North stood out.
This isn’t a short term uplift. It’s a structural shift, driven by real strengths in advanced manufacturing, clean energy and infrastructure. As UK wide FDI remains uneven through 2025–26, the North is proving more resilient, more competitive and harder to ignore.
Momentum is turning into outcomes.
In 2024/25, the North West secured 127 inward investment projects, with a further 108 landing in Yorkshire & Humber – clear proof that international confidence is translating into activity on the ground. The North East added 63 projects, strengthening the region’s innovation base and diversifying the wider ecosystem.
FDI brings much more than capital alone. It delivers capability – from global connections and specialist expertise to new ways of working – giving ambitious businesses the tools they need to enter new markets, adopt advanced technologies more quickly, and compete with confidence on a bigger stage.
When it comes to private equity the North of England continues to punch above its weight in UK midmarket private equity according to Pitchbook’s data. Around one in five UK PE backed businesses are based across the North West, Yorkshire & the Humber and the North East, and the region consistently delivers c.21% of UK deal volume – a clear signal of depth, resilience and repeatable deal flow. While headline deal values have softened relative to London and the South East, activity remains firmly anchored in the midmarket, with a strong concentration of software, business services and engineering led businesses. Healthy exit volumes reinforce the North’s role as a reliable engine of PE backed value creation – highlighting both the strength of its operating ecosystems and the continued opportunity for investors seeking scalable growth beyond the UK’s largest markets.
The message is clear: the North is playing a fundamental role in the UK’s investment landscape.
Number of PE backed companies in the north:
| Region | Companies |
|---|---|
|
North West
|
422
|
|
Yorks & The Humber
|
281
|
|
North East
|
121
|
|
Other UK
|
3275
|
|
Total UK
|
4,099
|
According to our Private Equity Pulse survey findings, private equity is sharpening its focus for 2026 -deploying capital with greater discipline, deeper sector expertise and a clear bias towards execution. With £190bn of dry powder ready to deploy, PE is prioritising sectors with structural tailwinds, including financial and professional services, industrials, aerospace & defence and asset management, with digital capability embedded across every investment thesis. Deal activity remains selective, but intent is clear: firms are doubling down on operational improvement, technology-led transformation and cashflow resilience as holding periods lengthen and exits become more strategic. Smart capital is moving -but only where fundamentals and long-term value stack up.
| Top 3 subsectors by # deals done | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Grand Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
North East
|
15
|
18
|
15
|
2
|
50
|
|
Business Services
|
6
|
9
|
8
|
0
|
23
|
|
Education & Training Services
|
5
|
5
|
4
|
1
|
15
|
|
Information Technology Services
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
1
|
12
|
|
North West
|
47
|
61
|
41
|
9
|
158
|
|
Software - Application
|
21
|
19
|
17
|
4
|
61
|
|
Business Services
|
17
|
26
|
12
|
3
|
58
|
|
Engineering & Construction
|
9
|
16
|
12
|
2
|
39
|
|
Yorks & The Humber
|
27
|
17
|
31
|
8
|
83
|
|
Business Services
|
11
|
6
|
8
|
5
|
30
|
|
Software - Application
|
10
|
7
|
11
|
0
|
28
|
|
Engineering & Construction
|
6
|
4
|
12
|
3
|
25
|
Thomas Dutton, Investment Director at Westbridge notes "Private equity continues to see significant opportunity in the North, underpinned by the resilience and ambition of its management teams and culture of innovation. Leading university ecosystems and collaborative networks are driving high-growth clusters across sectors such as fintech, SaaS and health tech, particularly in hubs like Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle.
Looking ahead, this confidence is reinforced by the region’s entrepreneurial spirit – with leadership teams continuing to invest, take calculated risks and double down on growth even in uncertain markets – positioning Northern businesses for growth when macroeconomic conditions improve. From a Westbridge perspective, for founders and business leaders considering private equity, the focus goes beyond funding alone. The right partner brings hands-on collaboration and strategic insight from day one – helping to unlock growth, accelerate execution and build value which aligns closely with the ambition and drive seen across the North."
The road ahead: building the next chapter of growth
Northern England is no longer an emerging growth story - it is a proving ground for how entrepreneurial drive and mid‑market strength can deliver resilient, sustainable outcomes.
As the North West and Yorkshire & Humber continue to scale ambition - and the North East builds its own momentum - the opportunity is clear: to move from disruption to durable advantage.
With the right support, capital and strategic leadership, the North’s entrepreneurs and mid‑market businesses will not just respond to change. They will define what comes next.
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Jim WhittakerPartner, Corporate Finance Advisory
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Matthew Bryden-SmithPartner
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Peter JenningsHead of Corporate Finance
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Adam BunchPartner -
Charles CusworthAssociate Director
