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Investment in Britain's tech sector jumped 44% in 2019-report

Wed, 15th Jan 2020 00:01

By Paul Sandle

LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Investment in Britain's tech
sector surged 44% to a record $13.2 billion pounds in 2019,
accounting for a third of all European funding and exceeding the
total in France and Germany combined, the UK government's
Digital Economy Council said on Wednesday.

The UK was behind only the United States and China in the
level of venture capital funding, and it saw strong growth
whereas both of its bigger rivals saw declines, according to the
research conducted by Tech Nation and Dealroom.co.

On a city level, London joined San Francisco's Bay Area,
Beijing and New York at the top of the world's most-funded
locations, it said.

Digital Minister Matt Warman said it was "fantastic to see
Britain continues to be the best place in Europe to start and
grow a tech business, with record-breaking investment and the
creation of eight new billion-dollar companies last year."

He said that while the country was in a good position, it
could not afford to be complacent and had to ensure that
government policy supported the sector.

"On access to talent, we will have a different immigration
policy over the coming years and that will be an important
opportunity for us to show that Britain is still very much the
right place to start or grow a tech business," he said in an
interview.

The Conservatives plan to introduce an "Australian-style"
points-based immigration system, and have promised to reduce
overall immigration numbers, especially among the less skilled.

Under the new system, which will treat EU and non-EU
citizens the same, most immigrants will need a job offer to come
to Britain, but there will be special visa schemes for those who
are leaders in fields such as science and technology or who will
fill shortages in public services.

Britain was striking the right balance between regulating
the fast-growing tech sector, for example in developing polices
to make the internet as safe as it could be, Warman said, while
also remaining pro-investment.

The research showed that companies headquartered in London
raised $9.7 billion pounds of the total, and the amount of money
invested in early-stage companies jumped to $5.1 billion in
2019, from $4 billion the year before.

Tech investor Saul Klein, co-founder of venture capital firm
LocalGlobal, said Britain's success had been 20 years in the
making, starting with the arrival of U.S. companies which had
established an ecosystem that helped home-grown firms flourish.
"When you look at the number of $1 billion companies - AKA
'unicorns' in Silicon Valley tech talk - London has 46 unicorns,
Berlin has 12, Paris has 11," he said. A unicorn is a privately
held startup company valued at more than $1 billion.

"In the last 10 years, Britain has consolidated its position
through a combination of capital, talent and building these $1
billion companies."

The eight British companies that reached unicorn status in
2019 were Rapyd, CMR Surgical, Babylon Health, Sumup, Trainline
, Acuris, Checkout.com and OVO Energy, taking the total
created in the UK to 77, twice the total in Germany and almost
four times as many as Israel, the report said.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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