Private Capital in Yorkshire and the Humber 2026

Yorkshire and the Humber’s growth story is built on turning strong ideas into strong companies. Investment and university spinouts are two of the clearest signals of the region’s potential. 

In the past 5 years, private capital has invested £7.1bn into Yorkshire and the Humber, highlighting the wealth and diversity of a region filled with exciting businesses and opportunities for growth and investment. At the same time, a stronger spinout pipeline is emerging from the University of Sheffield and the University of Leeds, creating more opportunities to back innovative companies from the earliest stages. 

That combination matters because it connects new ideas with long-term backing. When capital meets ambition, businesses can invest in people, productivity and export growth. The evidence in this report shows private capital is already helping to turn Yorkshire and the Humber’s strengths in finance, business services and fintech into firms that can scale. 

This support is already showing up in the real economy. Private capital-backed companies are creating jobs and investing for the long term across the region. Today, the industry backs 533 businesses and supports over 162,000 jobs, contributing over £10bn of GDP annually. Those headline figures sit behind thousands of day-to-day decisions in firms right across the economy. 

There is still more we can do to unlock private capital’s full potential in Yorkshire and the Humber. Policymakers, regulators and industry all have a role to play. We need to make sure that the policy and regulatory environment helps firms make the jump from start-up to scale-up, widens access to skills and talent, and ensures infrastructure supports growth in every part of our United Kingdom.