The Cardiff Capital Region has been identified as one of the UK's fasting growing tech clusters.
New research from Tech Nation, the UK network for tech entrepreneurs, has identified the region, that covers the 10 local authorities of south east Wales, as one of 13 UK hotspots for the tech sector.
There are now 21,500 people in the region employed in digital tech roles such as software developers - the sector does employ those in non tech digital roles.
The latest report from Tech Nation, Bright Tech Future Jobs/Skills, also shows that:
- Demand for roles such as Python developers has increased 34 times.
- The region offers one of the lowest costs of living in the UK, while offering an average salary of £35,000.
- In the past three years, a total of 90 digital tech businesses have established across the region.
George Windsor, head of insights, Tech Nation, which is holding a round table event based on its latest research in Cardiff tomorrow, said: “The region's rocketing tech companies are making a mighty contribution to the UK tech sector.
"With multi-million-pound investments in the region’s brightest start-ups and demand for digital tech roles burgeoning, the Welsh capital has established itself as a digital force to be reckoned with.”
Some of the region's leading tech firms include Amplyfi, Delio Wealth, Wealthify and DevOps Group.
Ian Ashley Jones, co-founder of Amplyfi , said: “The talent pool in and around Cardiff was just one compelling reason for us to headquarter there.
Since then, the Welsh Government has been proactively working to transform it into a hotbed of deep tech innovation.”
Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns, said: “We have committed to developing a strong entrepreneurial culture in Wales through our modern Industrial Strategy and we’re already reaping the benefits, as Tech Nation’s report reveals.
"An impressive 30 tech firms being born a year, demand for jobs in digital tech will only continue to attract the brightest minds across south Wales to study at our fantastic universities and join our growing roster of tech expertise.
Recent research from the ONS shows that the wider tech sector in Wales is creating new jobs at a rate higher than anywhere else in the UK.
The sector, where there are particular strengths in fintech and cyber security, has seen a 83% rise in employment since 2010.
The rise in Wales was the greatest of any UK nation or region of the UK, with the south west of England second with a rise of 41% since 2010.
Overall the number of jobs in the UK tech sector has risen by 38% since 2010.
On average, 400 more tech sector jobs have been created each month in Wales over the last five years.
The tech sector in Wales now employs 53,000.
