Here at Trio, we enjoy glad tidings as much as anyone. Reading the news, you might assume that everyone north of Watford was living in a post-apocalyptic killzone, forced to retrain their Auntie Margery as a bareknuckle boxer just to pay the rent.
We’re happy to report that in the city of Leeds, it’s not quite like that, as this week’s government report on the UK tech industry shows.
Leeds was announced as the UK’s sixth largest regional tech hub, just behind Bristol and comfortably beating Birmingham and Newcastle. The excitingly named ‘Levelling Up Power Tech League’ is calculated using venture capital investment figures, advertised tech salaries, and the number of unicorn companies and futurecorn companies based in each city.
Record levels of UK tech growth
UK tech investment more than doubled this year – up to £29.4 billion, from £11.5 billion in 2020. Almost £9 billion of this was invested outside of London and the South East.
To help you put that in perspective, investment in German tech start-ups and scale ups totalled £14.7 billion, and France raised £9.7 billion. UK tech investment accounted for a third of all European investment.
The investors are primarily U.S. based, contributing 37% of the overall funding.
The government report quoted Gerard Grech, of Tech Nation, who commented;
“With such a record tech investment year, it’s becoming increasingly evident that the UK is very good at rearing and cultivating startups and scale-ups into successful global companies right across the UK, unlike its continental European neighbours, where it tends to be more in capital cities. A true network of digital excellence is emerging right across the country through entrepreneurship, driving new job and wealth creation.”
Digital industry in Yorkshire enjoying fastest UK regional growth
Although Leeds is leading the region, accounting for nearly 10% of tech industry growth in Yorkshire, the benefits are being felt across the county, with a further projected £1.6 billion in growth and 42,000 digital tech jobs to be created by 2025.
So why is Yorkshire leading the pack? One reason might be ‘Project Gigabit’ – the most ambitious broadband project the UK has ever seen.
The roll-out of next-gen gigabit-capable broadband has made rapid powerful internet a reality for over 60% of premises in the region – a massive increase from 2018, when only 1.9% of Yorkshire postal addresses could hope to enjoy these services.
A tremendous year for Trio (if we do say so ourselves)
We’ve had a fairly amazing 12 months at Trio HQ, here in Leeds. Last Christmas, we were already 45% up on the previous year’s revenue.
We’re ending this year up another 40% in revenue, and our gross profit is up by 44%.
We’re growing so fast, our Trio Team of digital geniuses has doubled in a year (we don’t struggle to recruit, unlike a lot of tech and IT companies in Leeds).
So what makes us possibly the fastest-growing digital agency Leeds has to offer? CEO Claire Daniels admits that the pandemic has been a factor, causing businesses to invest more in their digital marketing.
She adds, “Also, we’re doing a lot to stand out in our space, and winning new business from our own marketing. We’re also investing in the latest digital tools such as TikTok and onboarding new clients by providing services in these areas”.
If you’re ready to start your own digital success story this year, contact Trio Media for the very best in Leeds web design and digital marketing.
