An island of (in)stability?
Nearly half of all non-UK founders planning international expansion name the UK as a target — and that figure barely moved across two years of political and economic turbulence. We look at what the data says, and what the May 2025 tariff spike reveals.
Your Sectors, Your Language: Why Conventional Databases Fail Specialist Economic Developers
Greater Phoenix does not want technology companies. It wants companies in semiconductors, microelectronics, and advanced silicon manufacturing. That distinction matters — not just for messaging, but for identifying the right pipeline in the first place. The challenge is that most company intelligence databases were not built for that level of precision. They were built around […]
Business Retention and Expansion Data: How Economic Developers Are Finding Growth-Stage Companies Before They Raise
BRE in the Innovation Economy: The Free Data Layer Economic Developers Have Been Waiting For Right now, there are companies in your jurisdiction planning to raise capital to scale. They are growing fast, hiring, and making decisions about where to base their next phase of growth. Most Economic Development programmes have no idea they exist. […]
Three Anchors: How UK, US, and International Founders Pick Their Target Raise Size
Almost half of US founders pick exactly $500k or $1m for their target raise. UK founders cluster at the £250k SEIS cap. Rest of world is diffuse. New shipshape.vc data on what shapes target raise size by country origin.
Which sectors are more likely to be aiming at US expansion?
Cybersecurity founders outside the US are 42% more likely than the average non-US founder to name the US as a target. Automotive founders are 35% less likely. Eight sectors over-index on US-bound expansion; six under-index. The corridor is real, but it’s a tech corridor.
Atlantic Asymmetry: UK and US innovation company expansion plans
Seventy-three per cent of UK founders who name any international expansion destination name the United States. Sector mix tells a sharper story still — cybersecurity and healthtech for UK->US, edtech for US->UK, and a surprise: UK fintech is under-indexed on the US route.
Where Founders Plan to Expand: Cultural and Diaspora Patterns in shipshape.vc Data
Sixty-eight per cent of Irish founders plan to expand to the UK, and thirty-four per cent of Indian founders name the GCC. The gaps between these origin-destination pairs and the rest of the chart are wider than market size alone would predict. We look at why diaspora and linguistic ties may be the unfair advantage behind founders’ expansion plans.
Africa’s Anglo / Franco Split in Expansion Plans: An Early Read
African founders’ expansion plans split along linguistic lines. Anglophone Africans look to the US and UK, Francophone Africans to the EU, and Egypt heads to the Gulf. An early read on a small but consistent pattern.
Why the Singapore VCC Is Becoming a Global Standard for Modern Fund Structures
“Money comes here and stays here because it can go if it wants to go” John James Cowperthwaite, Financial Secretary of Hong Kong (1961 to 1971). The quote was about Hong Kong—but in today’s world, Singapore arguably has a stronger claim to this ideal. As some nations impose or contemplate restrictions on capital movement, certainty […]
Startup Business Grants UK: Where Founders Can Actually Apply in 2026
Summary If you are searching for startup business grants in the UK: you are probably fighting three problems: confusing eligibility rules, out‑of‑date lists, and forms that vanish. This guide fixes that with up-to-date sources, plain‑English scoring cues, and a weekly workflow you can repeat. We also show how to pair grants with other small business […]