The Rest is Money podcast: Saul Klein on Why This Is the UK’s Defining Innovation Moment

It’s easy to be critical of the UK’s business landscape, something not helped by an extremely subdued sentiment that reflects current fragile geopolitics, AI anxiety and slow productivity growth. But perception and reality differ. All evidence points to the fact that, structurally, the UK is in its strongest innovation position in 150 years.

In a recent The Rest is Money podcast with economics expert Robert Peston and business correspondent and broadcaster Steph McGovern, Phoenix Court’s co-founder and executive chairman, Saul Klein explores this statement, stating that there is data-backed confidence around the state of UK business that must be celebrated.

In the December recording, Saul examines the evidence backing the claims of a once-in-a-generation moment and the signals we are futureproofing our economy:

• We continue to produce revenue-generating companies with real customers and real staying power, at scale.
• There are now 800 Colts (revenues $25M+) and Thoroughbreds ($100M+) in the UK. That’s more than France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands combined.
• The UK is third in the global innovation race, behind only the US and China.
• Our universities and research institutions are envied by the rest of the world, regularly featuring in the top 10 global rankings.
• We are seeing people are bettering themselves through innovation and business creation; and it is their communities and neighbourhoods supporting this growth.
• The innovation economy’s ‘plumbing’ is finally in place with £100bn committed to startups and scale up growth.
• We are sowing the seeds of innovation and the next cycle aligns with the UK's strengths.

To listen to the full podcast, please visit Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Alternatively you can read the complete ‘UK’s 150-year Moment’ paper on Saul’s Substack.