There’s a stat I keep coming back to. Two-thirds of UK tech firms are based outside London. Let that sink in for a moment. The majority of technology businesses in this country are not in Shoreditch or King’s Cross. They’re in Leeds and Manchester and Birmingham and Edinburgh and Bristol and dozens of smaller cities and towns across the UK.
Yet the distribution of angel and venture capital tells a completely different story. London still dominates. The networks are concentrated there. The events are there. The funds are there. And too many founders outside the M25 feel like they’re shouting into a void when they try to raise money.
At Lomond, we think this is both a problem and an opportunity.
The numbers don’t lie
Leeds has 205 high-growth enterprises, more than Bristol or central Manchester. Edinburgh’s angel network, Archangels, leveraged over £41m into Scottish scaleups in 2025 alone. Manchester’s tech ecosystem has exploded around MediaCityUK and the Northern Quarter. Birmingham’s regeneration is creating a new generation of tech-enabled businesses in manufacturing, logistics, and creative industries. Bristol’s cleantech and aerospace sectors are producing some of the most innovative companies in the country.
These aren’t emerging ecosystems. They’re established ones. The talent is there. The customers are there. The domain expertise is there. What’s often missing is the capital.
The funding gap is real
Research shows that 45% of firms in the North West cite limited access to funding as a key challenge, compared to 34% in London. That gap isn’t because the businesses are worse. It’s because the capital infrastructure hasn’t caught up with where the talent and opportunity actually are.
Part of this is a network problem. Angel investing has traditionally been a relationship game. You meet someone at an event, get introduced through a mutual contact, have a coffee. If you’re in London, those touchpoints happen constantly. If you’re in Leeds or Glasgow, they’re much rarer.
Why regional founders often make better investments
This might sound contrarian, but I believe it. Founders outside London tend to have certain advantages that make them particularly good bets for angel investment.
First, their cost base is lower. Office space, salaries, and living costs are all cheaper. That means £100k of angel money goes further. The runway is longer. The burn rate is lower. And the pressure to raise the next round is less intense.
Second, they often have deeper domain expertise. A founder building logistics tech in Birmingham probably has genuine industry experience and existing relationships with customers. They’re not guessing at the problem from a WeWork in Hackney. They’ve lived it.
Third, they tend to be more pragmatic. There’s less of the “move fast and break things” culture and more of a “build something solid and grow it properly” mentality. That suits the angel investment model perfectly, because angels want sustainable growth, not a bonfire of cash chasing vanity metrics.
How Lomond approaches this
We back founders across the entire United Kingdom. Geography is not a criterion. Character, resilience, and commercial awareness are. Our portfolio includes Select Group, which operates nationwide from offices across the UK, and Vante Finance, based in Leeds.
We don’t need you to be in London. We don’t need you to relocate. We need you to have a real business with real customers and a genuine plan for growth. Where you happen to be sitting when you build it is irrelevant.
Remote working changed the game
The shift to remote and hybrid working has levelled the playing field in ways that would have seemed impossible five years ago. Founders can build distributed teams. Investors can conduct due diligence over video. Board meetings work perfectly well on Zoom or Teams.
The practical barriers that once made it harder for regional founders to access capital have largely disappeared. What remains is a perception problem, and that’s changing too. More angel investors are actively looking outside London because they’ve realised the opportunity is there.
The opportunity
If you’re a founder outside London, you should see this moment as an advantage, not a disadvantage. The ecosystems are growing. The funding gap means less competition for the capital that is available. And the angels who are willing to look beyond London tend to be the most engaged, most experienced, and most hands-on investors you’ll find.
We started Lomond because we saw too many good founders struggling to find the right support. That problem is particularly acute outside the capital. If you’re building something real, wherever you are in the UK, we want to hear from you.