Manchester named as Europe’s fastest-growing tech hub

Manchester has become the fastest-growing tech city in Europe, leapfrogging research hub Cambridge for venture capital backing, a new study has shown.

Figures compiled by Tech Nation and job search engine Adzuna found that $687.6m (£527m) of venture capital funding was poured into tech firms in Manchester last year. This was compared to $199.1m in 2018, and meant the city was second to only London in terms of investment.

However, Manchester was growing much faster than the UK capital, which has seen consistently high VC investment figures.

Digital Minister Caroline Dinenage said Manchester’s "tech star has been rising for the past few years". She pointed to the recent IPO of Manchester-based online beauty titan The Hut Group as something which had "cemented the city’s reputation as an industry hub to rival the capital".

The Hut Group floated in September in what was London’s biggest listing in seven years. The company is currently valued at around £6.4bn.

The Hut Group is not the only tech success story in the city, though, and around 100,000 people were employed in the digital tech sector in Manchester in 2019, according to the latest figures.

Manchester is also home to companies such as Push Doctor, the virtual GP app which recently raised £14bn following a bounce in patient numbers during the pandemic. MoneySuperMarket, meanwhile, recently opened large offices in the city.

Currently, there are more than 4,000 open tech vacancies in the Greater Manchester region, Adzuna and Tech Nation said. The Hut Group is seeking the most new recruits, although TalkTalk and Sage are also hiring in the city.

The figures come ahead of a roundtable taking place later today, hosted by the Government’s digital economy council and Tech Nation, into the challenges facing tech firms as they create jobs and how the industry can help spur an economic recovery.

The Government has previously signalled the sector is at the centre of its plans to drive growth, and Rishi Sunak, earlier this year, said "start-ups and innovative firms are one of our great economic strengths, and they will help spur our recovery from the pandemic".