UK tech captured more than a third of the total (£89.5 billion) investment into Europe in 2021, with £29.4 billion raised by UK start-ups and scale-ups. With more money than ever flowing into UK tech – £29.4 billion in 2021, up from 2020 £11.5 billion – almost £9 billion of all venture capital invested went into start-ups and scale-ups outside London and the South East. The regions are home to nine of the 29 unicorns formed in 2021.
The combined value of UK tech companies founded since 2000 is now £540 billion, after the biggest year-on-year increase since 2013/14. The UK is more attractive to international investors than ever, with 63% of tech investment in 2020 coming from overseas, up from 50% in 2021
London
London ranks fourth in the world for tech venture capital investment, with $10.6 billion invested in 2020. It’s home to a cluster of technology companies known as ‘Silicon Roundabout’, including Facebook, Intel and Google.
It’s also home to research institutes such as Imperial College London and University College London.
Thames Valley
Thames Valley is often referred to as the ‘Silicon Valley of Europe’. It is a technology hub centred around Reading and stretching as far as Swindon, Oxford and West London. The area contributed £10 billion in turnover in 2019 - 2020 to the UK economy.
The region has over 8,000 tech companies, including Microsoft, with their UK headquarter based at Thames Valley Business Park. It’s also a strong research and development base, with world-class universities such as the University of Oxford.
Manchester
Manchester is the UK’s top digital tech city, with a rapidly growing £5 billion tech ecosystem. It’s home to over 10,000 digital and tech businesses, including Google, Microsoft and IBM, and has a steady flow of graduates from top research universities such as the University of Manchester.
Cambridge
A global centre of excellence in health technology, the Cambridge cluster generated £18 billion in turnover in 2019/20.
It’s a key innovator, with the highest number of patent applications per 100,000 people in the UK. University of Cambridge and Cambridge Healthtech Institute provide a strong research base.
Support is available in the form of a knowledge transfer partnership. This is available to firms of any size based in the UK. The partnerships are provided by UK Research and Innovation, which provides grants to help businesses innovate, grow and develop, and connects companies with academic partners to address innovation challenges.
The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) drives innovation in the technology sector by bridging the gap between businesses and pioneering science. It offers support to tech start-ups by offering business incubation programmes, providing the access to facilities, expertise and networking events.
Case studies
CKF
Gloucester-based CKF is an established robotic and automation solutions provider with a reputation for delivering systems to the manufacturing industry, within the UK and internationally, for over 30 years. Its experience, founded in the food industry, has been successfully transferred across a wide range of industries.
Customers include Muller, McVities and Jaguar Land Rover.
Liberty Global Inc/Virgin Media
The company’s Project Lightning is the single biggest private investment in the UK and Ireland’s digital fabric. It’s a £3 billion investment in the UK’s broadband infrastructure.
It aims to bring its next-generation gigabit connection broadband to its entire network of 15 million premises in 2022.
SambaNova
SambaNova Systems, an AI innovations start-up, announced its expansion to the EMEA market in 2020. This is in response to rising global demand for AI solutions. London was selected as the base for further EMEA and UK-wide business development.
Klarna
Swedish fintech company Klarna, a global leader in banking and payment services, has reaffirmed its commitment to the UK with a new headquarters in London.
This follows a year of substantial growth, with the company being valued at £23.3 billion, serving 14 million consumers and 13,000 retailers across the UK.
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