TURNOVER from digital tech businesses in Scotland is currently at £3.9 billion, while employment in the sector has reached 58,000, according to a new report.
The annual Tech Nation Report, in association with the World Economic Forum, published key findings on the UK’s booming tech industry, with individual sections on individual nations and regions.
It also revealed that, in Scotland, digital tech business count stands at 9000 and that productivity per worker in the sector stands at £68,000.
Tech Nation is a scale-up network for UK entrepreneurs and publishes its findings with data from partners including Companies House, PitchBook, GitHub, the OECD and Streetbees.
The report provides a comprehensive look into the evolution of the UK’s tech ecosystem, exploring the drivers that underpin and power economic growth within the sector.
This year, for the first time, the report explores the wider international landscape, looking specifically at international and national tech investment, areas of potential growth and related specialisms, talent hubs and more.
Michael Carr, co-founder of GoRoadie, an app which helps learner drivers find the right driving instructor, said: “Dundee has a history of innovation: the first radio broadcast in the world was sent from Dundee, and Grand Theft Auto (and Lemmings) were born here. More recently the multi-award winning V&A opened its doors and welcomed more than one million visitors.
“Today, there is a real buzz in this city, which is now known as the heart of video games, medical research and technology innovation.”
While Dundee is benefitting from the refurbishing of its Waterfront and a booming games industry, there are exciting things going on in the capital as well.
“The UK in general is a great place to raise investment – Edinburgh’s proximity to London is useful here and we have great engineering talent across the city,” said Calum Forsuth, founder and CEO of Seed Haus, an early-stage founder investor.
“What Edinburgh has lacked, in recent years, is a globally recognised tech edge (or USP), which is why I’m pleased to see a united effort to double down on the goal of building out Edinburgh as the data capital of Europe.”
Scottish Secretary David Mundell added: “Scotland has a well-deserved reputation for world-class innovation and design and it is great to see our multi-billion pound digital tech sector continue to thrive and make a vital contribution to our economy.
“We are at the forefront in pushing the boundaries in areas such as artificial intelligence, big data, cyber security, fintech and gaming and the UK Government will continue to champion the digital tech sector and support its growth.”
The report also details how the UK leads Europe in scale-up investment, which came out as two-and-a-half times higher than expected based on the relative size of the economy in 2018. While leading Europe, the UK also sits fourth in the world behind the US, China and India.
The UK remains a hotbed for tech talent, employing 5% of all high-growth tech workers globally – placing the UK ahead of Japan, France and Indonesia.
The report also found that the UK is the number one in the world for scale-up investment into fintech firms, generating £4.5bn in funding between 2015 and 2018, and that, to date, 35% of Europe and Israel’s tech unicorns – businesses valued at £1 billion or more – have been created in the UK.
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