Nearly 40,000 tech companies were incorporated in the UK in 2021, representing a 62% increase compared to the previous year.
According to Companies House data analysed by auditing, tax and consulting firm RSM UK, a total of 38,240 technology firms registered as limited companies last year, compared to 23,579 in 2020.
The global pandemic has had a serious impact across most sectors but has had less of a negative effect on tech companies.
David Blacher, partner and head of media and technology at RSM UK, said that it was encouraging to see the tech sector thriving where other sectors had either slowed or reversed into a decline.
He added that the pandemic had actually encouraged many businesses to embrace technology more than was previously the case – both in order to continue operations in times of disruption and to meet changing customer demands.
Advances such as the rollout of 5G and emerging technologies like cryptocurrency and the metaverse had also led to more companies viewing themselves as a tech-based business, he added.
Most new tech businesses were incorporated in the capital
London saw the greatest number of incorporations, with 18,549 tech companies registering as limited companies in the capital last year.
This represented an increase of 94% compared to the 9,572 incorporated in London last year.
Numerically, this was followed by the South East with 4,115 incorporations (an increase of 35%), and the North West with 2,371 (up 43%).
In terms of the highest growth rates outside the capital, the West Midlands led the way (an increase of 61%), followed by the North East (up 59%) and Northern Ireland (up 44%).
Blacher said that the analysis showed an “unprecedented level” of tech incorporations all around the UK.
The fact that London led the way in tech take-up did not come as a surprise, but he added that the regions were not getting left behind.
Separate data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysed by industry body Tech Nation last year revealed that a new tech business was springing up every half hour in the UK in 2020.
These figures coincided with a record level of venture capital investment in tech firms in the UK.
UK-based tech start-ups raised a combined $15bn in 2020, more than a third of the total raised across Europe.
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