Leeds is one of the fastest-growing tech cities

Leeds is one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech cities according to new analysis for the UK’s Digital Economy Council by Dealroom and the smarter job search engine Adzuna.

The research ranked the city sixth overall thanks to its combination of high levels of VC funding, the available tech job opportunities, advertised tech salaries, number of high-growth tech companies and future high-growth companies.

Leeds position was behind that of fellow Northern city Manchester which came second in the league table, but was ahead of eighth placed Newcastle.

Leeds reportedly has some of the highest average advertised salaries in the UK, with companies offering skilled tech workers around £56,287 for new roles, an increase of 11.6% from last year’s figures. The city is also seeing a rapid increase in the number of tech jobs available with 1,789 opportunities reportedly available up 84.6% from 2020.

However the city’s business have also collective secured £41 million of investment this year, including vegan dairy brand Northern Bloc (£9m) and carbon dioxide removal startup C-Capture which secured a £7.9m investment. The city is also home to fast growing tech companies including Crisp and Pharmacy2U which are on track to become unicorns – high growth companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more – in the next few years.

The recognition for Leeds comes after Yorkshire’s digital industry was named as the fastest-growing in the country, with predictions it will double in size over the next four years.

Digital Minister Chris Philp said: “UK tech has seen exponential growth this year and I’m delighted to see Yorkshire powerhouse Leeds rank in the top ten regional UK cities for tech investment.

“The city’s tech scene is driving growth and jobs and we are determined to build on the success by supporting its entrepreneurs and businesses with pro-innovation policies and investment in skills as part of our mission to level up the country.”

The full Levelling Up Power Tech League 2021 is:

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

The report comes at a time when more money than ever is flowing into UK tech – £26 billion this year, up 126% from last year, with regional cities taking a bigger slice of the pie with around a third of all funding going into startups and scaleups outside of London.

Tom White, CEO at C-Capture, said: “The market for environmentally conscious power generation and decarbonised industrial processes is growing exponentially, as the world moves towards a net-zero future. C-Capture’s next-generation carbon capture technology is part of the solution, and we are perfectly placed in Yorkshire to deliver it. The deployment of carbon capture in the industrialised clusters of Humberside, Teesside and the North West will drive investment into these regions. As a startup with a next-generation technology which offers performance benefits that industry needs we’re looking forward to an exciting year ahead in 2022”.

Yoram Wijngaarde, founder and CEO at Dealroom, said: “The UK tech ecosystem has exploded in the past year, with an increasing number of mega rounds minting new unicorns and futurecorns every day. This is significant because we know from research that employees at $1b+ companies often go on to found their own startups, some of which become unicorns themselves, which helps to shore up the ecosystem and lead to a new generation of global companies.”

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