Universities: New Businesses
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the proportion of university spin-out companies that subsequently scale into companies employing more than 50 people in the UK.
Answered by Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
In June 2025, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) published the first university spin-out register (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/business-community/spin-out-register), allowing us to understand the spin-out ecosystem better than ever.
Among 2,307 spinouts in the Spinout Register (as of September 2025), 9.3% were acquired, of these 70% from abroad. Meaning 6.5% of all spinouts registered were acquired from abroad. Even when acquired from abroad, the operations and R&D of the spin-outs in many cases will continue to be based in the UK, creating jobs, and attracting investment locally.
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