With its towering spires, pristine courtyards and cobblestone streets, the university city of Cambridge, England, rarely evokes thoughts of a tech hub, or anything even remotely modern.

But that’s what it has become. The city is the fastest-growing in Britain and home to the “Cambridge Cluster,” a group of knowledge-intensive businesses that has generated a double-digit number of startup unicorns, including $160 billion chip designer Arm Holdings Plc. And, as elected leaders across the political spectrum seek to revive the UK’s moribund economic growth, they look to the city as a blueprint for the future.