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Cambridge Cluster Insights
Infrastructure
Impact for scaleups
97,000
Companies identified
205
Scaleups identified
19,013
Employment by scaleups
£3.1bn
Turnover of scaleups
36.3%
Turnover increase of life science scaleups
27.7%
employment increase of ICT scaleups
Key sectors
Cambridge Cluster Insights provides a picture of growth and economic health across Greater Cambridgeshire’s 14 local authority districts. Designed by the University of Cambridge in partnership with entrepreneurs, the tool supports scaling businesses in attracting talent, customers and investors from the UK and overseas. Data and research from Cambridge Cluster Insight informs business support development and delivery across the region. It now includes 97,000 companies and limited partnerships.
In 2022, 205 scaleups were identified in the area, employing 19,013 people and contributing £3.1bn to the local economy. Scaleups in the life science sector show a 36.3% increase in turnover while those in ICT show 27.7% turnover growth.
While all thirteen sectors examined showed growth over the past 12 years, there is considerable variation across sectors. Employment growth in Knowledge Intensive (KI) sectors has increased fastest year on year. Turnover followed a similar trend with a strong post-pandemic recovery. The area has one of the largest concentrations of KI employment in Europe with universities and non-corporate research institutions now employing more than 37,000 people.
The latest update of employment data – completed in April 2023 – captures the impact of the Ukraine war on the Covid recovery and shows strong corporate resilience during a turbulent period. It reveals continued and faster employment growth in Greater Cambridge during the year to mid-October. Growth was driven by the buoyant KI economy which continued to expand rapidly despite supply chain disruptions and inflationary pressures.
Employment growth in non-KI sectors also contributed to the resilience of the Greater Cambridge corporate economy. Sectors severely impacted by lockdowns and other Covid-related restrictions – including hospitality and retail – saw a particularly strong bounce back in employment.
Data and research findings are made available to local councils and other authorities in and across the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area to inform the development of business support. The data is also used in Cambridge University’s Cambridge Innovation in Numbers statistics that give a snapshot of innovation performance in the city’s technology cluster.
