UK (Commonwealth)_Despite immigrants making up fewer than 15% of the population, 39% of Britain’s top 100 fastest-growing companies have a founder who was born outside the country, according to a recent study.
According to a survey by immigration services company Fragomen and entrepreneurial think tank The Entrepreneurs Network, it was the same percentage as in 2023 but lower than the 49% reported in a comparable report in 2019.
In the UK, immigrant founders come from 22 different nations, with the US accounting for the biggest share of foreign talent (15.2%). France, Germany, Canada, Australia, India, and Lithuania are significant sources of entrepreneurial talent, with Poland and Lithuania making their first appearances.
The Entrepreneurs Network urged the government to enact reforms to guarantee that Britain is accessible and open to the best and brightest in the world, stating that the results demonstrate the crucial role that international entrepreneurship plays in the country’s startup scene.
As our research demonstrates again and again, foreign talent is contributing to the development of some of Britain’s most intriguing and profitable businesses. People entering our nation to work are a tremendous force for good.
We must make sure that our immigration system acknowledges their amazing contribution and does not unnecessarily erect obstacles in the way of people who wish to strengthen and energize our economy.
According to the report’s authors, the results demonstrate “the critical contribution” that foreign talent makes to the UK.
They unquestionably have a significant influence on the nation’s startups. Despite making up an estimated 14.8% of the country’s total population, immigrants have launched more than one-third of its fastest-growing companies.
Back in 2019, we reported that 49% of the 100 fastest-growing UK companies had a foreign-born founder. However, what about a company that was founded by friends? This figure contributed to a shift in public perception of immigration. Immigrants undoubtedly played a significant role in driving innovation in the UK.
To assist in guaranteeing that the UK is accessible to the greatest talent worldwide, we have ten ambitious initiatives. Here, I’ll discuss a few.
The research also suggests expanding the Youth Mobility Initiative to include more nations with strong historical, cultural, and economic ties to the UK. We also believe that the duration of a person’s stay in the UK should contribute to their Indefinite Leave to Remain.
The “Global Talent Exam” experiment, which allows a group of gifted young people to relocate to the UK, is an unconventional concept. Many will go on to build things, even if they wouldn’t have to launch companies like the well-known Sirius Program.
Lastly, the bureaucracy needs to be reorganized. It’s 43 times more expensive than Germany, which is already shocking when compared to Australia, Canada, and Germany. We are discouraging the future job creators in an attempt to collect a few pounds in the short term.
Take Nazim Valimahomed, for example. Nazim was born in Uganda, but once Idi Amin took over, he and his family escaped to the UK as refugees. After that, they relocated to Canada, where Nazim lived the remainder of his early years before attending college. As Russia’s economy opened up, he moved to Moscow after graduating. Nazim used an entrepreneur visa in 2015 to become a permanent resident of the UK.
With more than 100,000 personal current account customers and more than three-quarters of a billion pounds of total customer deposits, Kroo, a fully licensed digital bank that he founded with Tim Brown, is currently in operation under Nazim.
According to the Entrepreneurs Network, these results highlight how important foreign talent is to the growth of the UK startup industry. It calls on the government to enact policy changes that would increase the UK’s attractiveness to top talent from around the world.
Reducing visa costs for highly educated immigrants to be more competitive with worldwide standards, expanding the High Potential Individual visa program to include more universities, and negotiating a Youth Mobility Scheme with the US and EU are some of the suggested reforms.
Among the top 100 notable startups with foreign-born founders are Atoa, Monzo, and Carwow. In order to highlight the important contributions made by immigrant founders, the report also includes case studies of prosperous foreign-born businesspeople, such as Paul Domjan of ENODA and Shiladitya Ghosh of Mission Zero Technologies.
