The Launchpad Pop-Up Store 2025 brought new life to Sheffield city centre by turning an empty unit into a festive retail space. Over four weeks, local makers were supported to test selling in a physical store for the first time. Thirty-one Sheffield businesses took part, many representing diverse communities. More than 8,000 people visited the store and supported local traders. The pop-up showed the value of creating low-risk opportunities for independent businesses to grow.
A University of Sheffield spin-out company has secured major investment from leading deep tech investors to bring its high-performance infrared sensors to the mass market.
Meet Chris. He’s worked in tech for a long time. He started out in the 90s as a business consultant, he acquired a struggling IT company in need of turnaround. After transforming this to success over the following 10 years he then founded an e-commerce retailer in 2003.
Meet Morgan. He lives and breathes tech. Morgan knows what he’s talking about because he’s an an ex-tech founder himself, with 20 years’ experience in starting and growing multiple businesses of his own.
An annual ranking of the Top 25 Cities in the UK (outside of London) for starting a business, the Startups Cities Index is the most exhaustive research project of its kind. Sheffield was revealed as the ultimate winner, thanks to the city’s strong performance across business support, talent attraction, low cost of living, large working population and fantastic transport links.
Business Sheffield is proud to present the Launchpad Pop-Up Market, a festive initiative running from 27th November to 20th December 2025 at 108 Pinstone Street. This project, funded by the Launchpad Programme and delivered by Sheffield City Council, offers free, short-term retail space for early-stage makers and craft businesses to showcase their products, test new ideas, and engage with the community during the busy holiday season.
Sheffield has a number of distinct assets within the Sport, Health and Wellbeing arena and, thanks to the rich heritage in medical technology development, the city is home to one of the UK’s largest Medical Devices clusters. Our manufacturing expertise means we also have one of the largest concentrations of orthopaedic, medical device and surgical instrumentation companies in the UK.
Taking over the Concourse outside Sheffield University Students’ Union, Under The Bridge will run 12pm - 8pm with a FREE outdoor live music, art and street food.