Report

A Decade of UK Tech

Over the last decade we have felt profound technological and economic change. The course the industry has taken, from community based roots around East London’s Silicon Roundabout, to a truly distributed national network of ambitious startups and scaleups, has not been smooth, or easy. Nevertheless, in the face of adversity entrepreneurs have innovated, created, and pioneered the next generation of tech companies, who’s effects we continue to feel in the UK and across the world.

In the next year alone we expect to see UK tech startups and scaleups cumulatively valued at over $1.3 trillion; up from $53.6 billion ten years ago, raising over $50 billion in venture capital investment; up from $1.9 billion in 2012, and employing over 5 million people in the UK from 2.18 million just a few years ago.

Some things about tech, though, have not changed for the better. The distribution of venture capital invested has barely shifted, geographically, and by the characteristics of people and companies invested into.

Fintech continues to lead the UK investment landscape, representing $12.8bn of new investment in 2021, nearly a third of all investment made into the ecosystem, and healthtech remains firmly in second place with $6.3bn.

Deep tech sits at the heart of the UK’s tech future. Inherently, companies developing new, cutting edge technologies represent opportunities that exist outside of our current state of technology adoption, and in the UK, this development activity is being prioritised.

On jobs, in 2021, for the first time this decade we saw the number of job adverts for UK tech roles exceed 3 million. Tech salaries have increased by 36% over the last ten years – far exceeding that of the labour market as a whole. In fact, from 2020 to 2021, advertised salaries outside of tech dropped. This calls into question the potential polarising nature of technology, as well as the clear economic benefits of those in tech jobs.

This report collates the latest data on the evolution of tech, and curates opinions of those at the cutting edge of UK tech who are thinking about its future. What’s clear is, the next decade of UK tech will be full of opportunity and change.