Businesses in South East invest the most in innovation

Brighton-based lead generation firm Sopro revealed that businesses in the south east engage the most in innovation to advance.

The B2B prospecting and lead generation company has been analysing government data, which showed that 40.2 percent of businesses in the south east were investing in innovation.

The region with the least amount of investment in innovation from firms was the East Midlands with 35.1 percent.

Sopro also found that the tech industry was one of the most innovative in the UK.

It comes as UK tech startups saw a 710 percent increase in funding last week - underscoring investor confidence and the promising outlook for the sector.

Almost three in five, or 59.6 percent of companies in the publishing, computer programming, and information and communications technology (ICT) sectors engage in innovation.

This was put down to the nature of such industry, where advances, such as in artificial intelligence (AI), require innovative software and skills to be used.

Meanwhile, the industry with the most companies engaged in innovation was scientific research and development (R&D) at 69 percent, followed by the manufacture of computer, electrical and optical equipments.

The industry where there was the least amount of innovation was in technical testing and analysis, at 43.7 percent.

Meanwhile, computer software also stood out as the leading area of innovation, with 17.7 percent of businesses directing investments toward it.

In addition, more than two-fifths of businesses say improving goods and services was the main motivation behind innovating, noted Sopro.

Sopro is a global multi-channel prospecting service, which aims to enable B2B businesses to sell more by discovering and engaging their future customers.