Best UK cities for Tech

The latest market data reveal a new power tech league in the UK, let's see in detail which cities we are talking about.

Cambridge is the leading regional tech city in the UK thanks to its combination of high levels of VC funding, venture capital rounds, advertised tech salaries, number of unicorns (tech companies worth more than $1 billion), and future corns, according to new analysis for the UK’s Digital Economy Council by Dealroom and the smarter job search engine Adzuna.

Manchester was only narrowly beaten by Cambridge to the number two position, and Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast are also in the top ten for capital raised, showing how the tech sector has spread across all regions and countries in the United Kingdom. The number of jobs in Manchester increased by 164.6% in 2021 and the highest advertised average salaries outside London were in Edinburgh - ￡58,405.

With more money than ever flowing into UK tech - ￡29.4 billion this year, up 2.3x from last year’s figures of ￡11.5 billion - almost ￡9bn of all VC invested went into startups and scale-ups outside London and the South East and the regions are home to nine of the 29 unicorns formed this year. The combined value of UK tech companies founded since 2000* is now ￡540 bn, after the biggest year-on-year increase since 2013/14.

Leveling Up Power Tech League 2021:

1. Cambridge
2. Manchester
3. Oxford
4. Edinburgh
5. Bristol
6. Leeds
7. Birmingham
8. Newcastle
9. Cardiff
10. Belfast