Bristol tech companies have raised $305million from investors this year, according to new research.
Bristol has received the third-most investment of all UK cities - with only Manchester and London raising more since the start of the year - according to the report by Tech Nation and Dealroom.co for the Digital Economy Council.
The city's tech businesses achieved a combined turnover of £7.9billion last year and employed almost 25,000 people.
Technology business Ultrahaptics, in which Mayfair Equity Partners took a 20 per cent stake last month, is set to join Bristol-based tech giants Graphcore and OVO Energy in becoming a UK unicorn, meaning it is valued at more than $1billion.
Digital secretary Nicky Morgan said: “Bristol is one of our leading tech hubs, spearheading the development of robotics and autonomous vehicles, creating thousands of jobs across the city, and home to two billion dollar tech unicorns.”
George Windsor, head of insights at Tech Nation, added: “In recent years, Bristol has asserted itself as one of the UK’s leading tech hubs.
"The Tech Nation reports of 2019 and 2018 highlighted its role as one of the most productive tech clusters in the UK, as well as revealing how it has created thousands of jobs in the area.”
Tech Nation is working closely with the Digital Economy Council and the Department of Digital, Media, Culture and Sport to recognise the critical role that tech workers who don’t hold executive roles play in creating the UK’s most successful growing tech companies.
To do this it has launched the Bright Tech Future awards, aimed at the 99 per cent of workers in the tech sector, rather than founders and CEOs.
To find out more about the awards and to nominate up to three team members, visit technation.io/bright-tech-future-hall-of-fame.
