Tech Nation

Tech Nation (originally Tech City UK, a company limited by guarantee incorporated in January 2014) was the UK government-funded growth platform for tech start-ups and scale-ups. It ran free sector programmes such as Future Fifty, Upscale, Fintech and Applied AI, published the annual Tech Nation Report and acted as the Home Office's endorsing body for the Global Talent visa. In January 2023 it announced that it would cease most operations on 31 March 2023 after the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport awarded its core grant, Tech Nation's main revenue stream, to Barclays Eagle Labs in an open tender. Staff were not transferred to Barclays. In April 2023 Founders Forum Group acquired the Tech Nation brand and relaunched a number of its programmes, and the registered company remains active under the new owner.

The Tech Nation brand, programmes and visa-endorsement role passed to Founders Forum Group (Founders Forum, Founders Factory, Firstminute Capital) in April 2023 on undisclosed terms; Barclays Eagle Labs took the DCMS grant but no staff, and the original programmes were wound up at the end of March 2023.

A support body built on a single public grant is only as durable as the next tender. When the grant moved, a decade-old national programme shut within two months, and only the brand survived through a private acquirer.