UK tech sector enjoys best year on record

Here are some key highlights:

• The UK raised £26bn in VC in 2021 – a new record;
• A record-breaking 29 unicorns – worth $1 billion – emerged in 2021. Over a third of these are located outside London;
• Cambridge is the leading regional tech city in the UK across metrics such as tech salaries, tech jobs available and fast-growing tech companies created there.

Digital Minister Chris Philp commented: “It has been another record-breaking year for UK tech, with innovative British start-ups helping solve some of the world’s biggest challenges. Capitalising on this fantastic investment across the country is a crucial part of our mission to level up, so we are supporting businesses with pro-innovation policies and helping people to get the skills they need to thrive in this dynamic industry.”

With more money than ever flowing into the UK’s tech sector (£26 billion this year, up from £11.5 billion last year) almost £9 billion of all VC investments went into start-ups and scaleups outside London and the southeast.

The £26bn raised by UK start-ups and scale-ups was nearly double the figure raised in Germany (£13.5 billion) and is more than three times that raised by France companies (£8.6 billion). UK tech investment made up 35% of the total £76 billion that flowed into the European tech ecosystem this year.

Furthermore, nine out of the 29 unicorns created this year are outside London, including Interactive Investor in Glasgow, Vertical Aerospace in Bristol, and Touchlight Genetics in Hampton. Here is the Levelling Up Power Tech League, which orders UK cities in terms of their VC funding, the number of VC rounds, the number of available jobs, average salary, and number of unicorns:

1. Cambridge
2. Manchester
3. Oxford
4. Edinburgh
5. Bristol
6. Leeds
7. Birmingham
8. Newcastle
9. Cardiff
10. Belfast

The increased levels of money going into UK tech also means that companies need more trained technical and business staff. As such, there has been a 50% rise in overall UK tech job vacancies advertised this year, compared to 2020’s figures – with advertised tech vacancies hitting 160,887 in November.

Currently, tech vacancies make up 12% of all available jobs in the UK.