Manchester was the fastest-growing tech city in Europe and has more than doubled its investment within a year, says a new Tech Nation report.
Annual data released by the UK tech network shows an increase in investment from 拢48m in 2018 to 拢181m in 2019, representing a 277% increase.
The report also suggests that growth in the industry has outstripped any other in the UK. The sector contributed 拢149bn to the UK economy in 2018, accounting for 7.7% of UK gross value added. This is nearly聽six times greater than growth across the economy as a whole, which increased by 1.4%.
It also reports that聽a quarter聽of Europe鈥檚 top 20 highest investment tech cities are in the UK. These were Manchester, London, Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge.
While Manchester grew most quickly, London generated record investment among European cities. It secured 拢6.8bn in 2019, a 68% increase on 2018, followed by Berlin at 拢3.5bn and Paris at 拢2.4bn.
It claims the UK is also a world leader in producing tech 鈥榰nicorns鈥� 鈥� firms valued at over $1bn. It says the UK is 3rd in the world, behind the US and China. The UK is now home to 77 tech unicorns.
It is also third in the world for its level of AI technology invesment. In 2019, for every 拢1 invested into new tech such as AI, robotics, cybersecurity, blockchain, IoT and mixed reality in Europe, 35 pence was invested into UK companies.
From 2015 to 2019 UK AI companies raised 拢3.2bn of global AI investment. Meanwhile the US raised 拢32bn and China raised 拢12bn. It makes the UK the only country of the top聽five AI nations to have demonstrated consistent positive year-on-year growth for the last聽five years.
Poppy Gustafsson, CEO of London-headquartered AI cybersecurity firm Darktrace, commented: 鈥淚t is fantastic that the UK stands as one of the top 3 countries investing in AI globally. The lifeblood of brilliant technology companies is access to capital and great talent, and Britain has both of these ingredients.鈥�
The report also shows that 拢1.18bn was raised by UK HealthTech companies in 2019, accounting for 61% of the total European market of 拢1.93bn.
Eileen Burbidge, Partner at聽Passion Capital and聽Chair at聽Tech Nation, highlighted the UK鈥檚 leadership in FinTech, pointing to new data from the report.
鈥淭he latest findings from Tech Nation today evidence the impact the tech sector has on the UK economy,鈥� she said.
鈥淔inTech continues to be one of the UK鈥檚 key strengths, with 44% of Europe鈥檚 FinTech unicorns and high-value scale-ups being located in the UK.鈥�
FinTech remains the UK鈥檚 largest tech investment sector with a 100% rise from 2018. 44% of Europe鈥檚 FinTech unicorns and companies valued between $250m and $800m are based in the UK.