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StartUp Britain readies relaunch following acquisition by Centre for Entrepreneurs

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By Natalie Mortimer, N/A

April 13, 2015 | 3 min read

StartUp Britain is set to relaunch this week following its acquisition by think tank the Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE) last spring.

Founded in 2011 StartUp Britain was created by eight entrepreneurs and backed by big brands including BT Business and Dell, to harness industry expertise to accelerate and aid enterprise in the UK. Under the new direction of CFE, the organisation will look to revive its events and activities to encourage the creation of start-ups and push out new campaigns to reach specific audiences, such as the over 60’s, in the UK.

Speaking to The Drum director of CFE Matt Smith outlined the work the think tank has carried out over the past 12 months, including growing StartUp Britain’s Twitter following from 53,000 to 78,000 despite dialling down its event activity.

“It’s been a year since we acquired StartUp Britain, which has and always will be funded by corporates. When we inherited the brand we lost the team and the corporate partners, so we’ve spent a while finding the right partners to work with so we can continue.”

Headline sponsor Sage came on board this month for a 12 month period, with a second headline sponsor to be announced next month. During the year Sage will provide commercial support and expertise in regional start-up focused events as well as the nationwide StartUp Bus Tour, which will visit 30 towns and cities across the UK providing advice and information.

The organisation is also working on a number of campaigns to engage different audiences, including one aimed at international students currently studying in the UK to encourage them to stay and start a business. “We want to drive up the numbers of people staying and starting businesses and build an entrepreneurial environment in universities,” said Smith.

Speaking about trends within start-ups Smith said food, technology, health and retail are four areas that are seeing growth as well as the number of businesses that are springing up outside London.

In 2014 for example the number of businesses registered with government body Companies House in Birmingham reached 18,337, up from 16,281 in 2013 and 13,054 in Manchester, up from 11,765 in 2013.

Tech Start Ups Retail Great Britain

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