New share investment in companies based in Northern Ireland was more than £100m in 2021, according to Catalyst.
This compares with about £5m of venture capital investment in 2014, and just over £44m in 2020.
Catalyst says that despite the challenges of the past two years, the tech industry is "thriving".
"There is a number of ways innovation can change, and disruption and global events can actually drive innovation," Adrian Johnston, Catalyst director of strategic business development said.
"What you have seen is that the digital and technology sector has responded with agility to that need.
"We are seeing that the technologies have continued to thrive and grow.
"We have seen that within the companies that Catalyst support, we have 155 companies across three hubs in Northern Ireland, ranging from scale-ups and start-ups to FDI (Foreign Direct Investment)."
Catalyst is an "independent, not-for-profit" organisation with technology hubs in Belfast, Ballymena and Londonderry, supporting innovators and entrepreneurs.
IMAGE SOURCE,CATALYST
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Adrian Johnston believes Northern Ireland has great potential as a launching pad for young entrepreneurs
Earlier this month, it unveiled a five-year strategy in a bid to generate "significant economic benefits for Northern Ireland" by enabling more people to "access opportunities created by innovative industries".
Its targets include:
1,000 individuals from under-represented groups participating in innovation programmes to launch 50 new productsSupporting the development of 100 prominent role model entrepreneurs from diverse gender and socio-economic backgroundsSupporting 20 new sustainable start-ups founded by females and/or non-university graduates in the next 12 months
Mr Johnston believes Northern Ireland has great potential as a technology centre for future young entrepreneurs.
"Our facilities are at 99% capacity and continue to be so," he said.
"We see a huge amount of interest and the pandemic has shifted some people's mindsets...people are more interested in career change and a career change might be into entrepreneursSian Farrell, is co-founder and chief scientific officer at start-up company, StimOxygen, which is developing a potential treatment for cancer patients.
Based at the Ulster University Coleraine, she got involved in the initiative during the pandemic.
The spin-off firm's focus is solving the problem of hypoxia (low-levels of oxygen) in solid tumours.
"There are very low levels of oxygen within tumours for treatments such as radiotherapy that work by converting oxygen into a weapon against cancer - they can't work if there is no oxygen there.
"We have developed an oxygen generating nanoparticle that goes to the tumour site, breaks down there and it can boost the effects of radiotherapy."
Sian trained as a pharmacist, but helped form StimOxygen while studying for her PhD, after participating in the Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research project.
During the pandemic, Sian realised she could pivot in her career, and was impressed by the possibilities in the technology industry in Northern Ireland.
"You wouldn't believe the start-ups, the ideas and the technology that we have, I think the main challenge for us in Northern Ireland is we have to learn to scale it up faster and bigger."
There has been a steady flow of technology jobs in the past two years, with about 58% of total greenfield FDI (foreign direct investment where a company establishes operations in another country) received into Northern Ireland in 2020 and 2021 from the software and IT sector, according to FDI Markets.
There have also been significant business deals.
hip and digital technologies."
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