Digital sector growing 6x faster than UK economy – Tech Nation Report 2020

As part of its 2020 report, Tech Nation has revealed that digital tech sector gross value added (GVA) grew six times faster than that of the rest of the UK economy in 2018.

This amounts to a contribution of £149 billion to the UK economy and accounts for 7.7 per cent of UK GVA.

The sector now employs 2.9 million people in the UK, an increase of 40 per cent from 2017 and 9 per cent of the national workforce as a whole.

The report also shows that UK companies secure a third of the £30.4 billion of invested into European tech companies in 2019, with London generating a record £7.3 billion.

Manchester is now officially the fastest growing European tech city, with an increase of £48 million to £181 million from 2018 to 19 – an increase of 277 per cent.

For the North East, the tech and digital economy remains strong.

£100 million of venture capital was invested in 2019, taking the total invested in emerging tech companies to £22 million since 2015.

£896,000 has been invested in artificial intelligence (AI) since 2015 and the median digital tech salary in the region is now £35,000.

The big highlight of the report was Durham-based challenged bank Atom Bank joining the Future Fifty 8.0 growth programme for late-stage tech companies in the UK.

Future Fifty is Europe’s longest serving and most successful programme for late-stage tech companies, with 9 IPOs and 30 mergers and acquisitions under its belt.

Liz Scott, head of entrepreneur engagement at Tech Nation, commented: “I’m thrilled that Atom Bank is joining the Tech Nation Future Fifty 8.0 growth programme.

“Atom is a tech beacon for the North East and joins a long list of illustrious tech firms from Deliveroo and Partnerize to Monzo that have been through Future Fifty.

“Atom’s DNA has been to build in the North East, utilising local talent and deliberately investing in the region. This is exactly why it’s so important for us to support high value scale-ups all across the UK.

“It was great to see our Tech Nation 2020 report highlight that Atom is officially now classified as a high-value scaleup, a category used to predict future $1bn tech companies.

“There’s no doubt that it’s an exciting time for tech in the North East.”