The UK continues to be attractive to investors despite its decision to leave the European Union, drawing more venture-capital investment in 2016 than the next four European countries combined.
Venture-capital firms invested £6.8 billion pounds into Britain last year, 50 percent more than any other European country. The amount is two and a half times more than businesses received in France, and almost five times more than Germany.
According to the new report by Tech City UK, released on Wednesday, the UK also has more of Europe’s top 20 universities than any other country and hosts more tech meetups than any other European hubs.
This latest study will go some way to mitigate concerns that Brexit will impact the future of British startups’, underlining the idea that investors will continue to see Britain as a pioneer in the tech industry.
The figures show that despite Britain’s decision to leave the European Union in June, investor interest in the country remains strong. According to figure from London & Partners, UK tech companies raised over £2.5 billion in 2015, up 70 percent from 2014 when they raised £1.4 billion; and this figure shows no sign of slowing.
The UK now has 1.64 million digital tech jobs, with the growth rate of tech jobs more than double that of non-digital jobs between 2011 and 2015. Geographically, the tech industry is expanding further outside of London, with nearly 70 percent of UK digital tech investment in 2016 was in regional clusters. Cambridge and Edinburgh emerged as the most invested in clusters in the Tech City UK report, but tech companies based in the North of England have also seen a record increase in investment in 2016.
A total of £326.9 million was invested into Northern tech firms in 2016, according to the first Tech North Investment Index report. This was an increase of 1,551 percent from the £19.8 million raised in 2007, with the most significant growth taking place over the previous three years.