UK tech sector reaches $1 trillion valuation

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The UK's technology industry is worth $1 trillion after a surge of growth throughout the pandemic.

Dealroom figures suggest the tech sector doubled in value in 2020 to $942 billion and continued to see growth in both private and public markets throughout 2021.

Investment in the UK's tech sector has always been quite plentiful with an estimated £4.8 billion of venture capital flowing into the country in 2019. But it saw a significant rise as the UK went into lockdown and technology and digital services took on more importance.

However, the figures suggest that the UK has seen an especially impressive rise compared to other countries, with its latest valuation more than double that of Germany and five times larger than France, according to Dealroom. The US and China are the only other countries that can claim $1 trillion valuations for their respective tech industries.

What's more, this growth is set to continue, with UK tech companies raising over £6 billion in the first three months of 2022. More than half of that was raised by Fintech firms, according to Dealroom, with FNZ, Checkout.com and GoCardless accounting for £3.3 billion.

Further research by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), published last year, also found that the UK's digital sector is on track to add £190 billion in value to the UK economy and create nearly 700,000 jobs over the next three years.

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Digital Minister Chris Philip announced the figures at the West Midlands Tech Review, in Birmingham, an event that celebrates the region's tech successes and opportunities.

"Every corner of the country has contributed to the sector's success including the West Midlands whose digital ecosystem is set to keep growing by at least £2.7 billion by 2025 and create 52,000 additional jobs," Philip said.

The tech prowess of the West Midlands is set to be showcased through a £24 million Business and Tourism Programme that's part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The aim is to use the high profile of the athletics event to drive inward investments and export opportunities between the West Midlands and Commonwealth markets.

Bobby Hellard

Bobby Hellard is ITPro's Reviews Editor and has worked on CloudPro and ChannelPro since 2018. In his time at ITPro, Bobby has covered stories for all the major technology companies, such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook, and regularly attends industry-leading events such as AWS Re:Invent and Google Cloud Next.

Bobby mainly covers hardware reviews, but you will also recognize him as the face of many of our video reviews of laptops and smartphones.