Cambridge is full of innovative start-ups and the main thing they need is money to help them grow. That’s the perceived wisdom but having attended last night’s Cambridge Network Open Meeting on Growth Capital I think it needs to be challenged.

The whole event, held at Robinson College was about getting money. But despite engaging presentations from the likes of bankers Kleinwort Benson, venture capital companies Amadeus and Atlas Venture as well as economic think tank Z/Yen the audience was dominated, not by hungry start-ups but by lawyers, accountants and PR people (myself included). A back of the envelope calculation was that just 16 per cent of people there were start-ups. Obviously you need an ecosystem to develop any technology cluster, but the balance seems all wrong.

So the question I’m left with was – where are the future Cambridge giants, the next ARM, Autonomy or CSR in embryo? Are they in their sheds busy inventing or simply not worried about gaining the investment they need to grow? Answers on a postcard please……

There are those that have become international successes – the likes of Sage, ARM, Autonomy, Misys and Ultra Electronics are all strong members of the FTSE 250. But in comparison to the US, which has the NASDAQ Index predominantly made up of tech companies we obviously lag behind.

Given a flotation is the obvious alternative to a trade sale, we should be encouraging tech companies to list, gain additional investment and grow. But it currently costs over £1m to list a business on a UK stock market, where you are competing for money with a huge range of companies from around the world, many of whom are selling simpler products such as raw materials, consumer goods or property.

Rather than criticise entrepreneurs and their VC backers for ‘selling out’ it is time that listing a company in the UK was made more attractive. This would bolster the UK tech sector and create more of the leaders that we are looking for.