Matt Clifford, the chief executive of Entrepreneur First, an accelerator that invests in and nurtures promising young startups, says that if anything the falling pound has made it easier for Americans, who are responsible for a significant amount of investment in the British tech scene, to put money in. Brexit clauses in fundraising sheets, which forced startups to take less money or give away more of their companies, were rare, and most likely an attempt by opportunistic investors to capitalise on uncertainty.

As for our startups fleeing? According to officials in Berlin, a prospective post-Brexit European tech hub, a grand total of five startups have relocated from London since the referendum.

This comes despite a major push to entice them: in July, German officials hired a van to drive around London loudly painted with the slogan: “Dear startups, keep calm and move to Berlin.”

Frankly, it wouldn’t be surprising if five startups had moved from Berlin to London in that time: many young companies will relocate from time to time. And meaning no offence to those who have taken the plunge, none of them has had the effect that one of London’s biggest startups leaving would do.

The truth is that right now, the attractions of the UK, and in particular London, significantly outweigh any post-referendum uncertainty for technology startups. The talent from universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London, proximity to the City of London, the English language, tax incentives and lack of red tape (in comparison to many rival destinations) outweigh them right now. For now, startup founders and venture capitalists seem to generally agree that this will continue to be the case after Brexit.

This isn’t to say that the UK’s tech community supported leaving: they didn’t, and would still say now that they would prefer it hadn’t happened.

There are still significant concerns about Brexit Britain, largely related to access to talent: many founders and a significant proportion of employees at tech startups are EU nationals; they will want assurances that they can both stay in the UK and that they will be able to hire high-skilled staff afterwards.

David Fuller's view

Tech start-ups within the research triangle of Cambridge, Oxford and London were doing well under the UK’s previous government so it is hardly surprising that the generally unexpected Brexit vote alarmed the industry. 

However, those talent pools are not easy to replicate and the UK is in the process of making its business environment even more competitive, from tax incentives to recruiting talent not just from the EU but all over the world.  Inevitably, uncertainties will remain until the UK has actually left the EU.  A Supreme Court decision allowing the Government to invoke Article 50 in accordance with the Referendum result would obviously help.

Here is a PDF version of James Titcomb’s article.