A guide to the London tech hub

London’s tech ecosystem is in rude health according to dealroom.co, which reports that the value of the city’s tech companies (founded since 2000) passed half a trillion dollars in 2021, up 70 per cent in value on the previous year. Additionally, VCs saw their investments realised to the tune of $88bn (£79.5bn) in exit value for London-based start-ups in 2021, up from just $3.5bn (£3.3bn) in 2020.

It seems the pandemic barely slowed down investment and interest in the sector. London remains one of the leading global hubs for technology: in 2021, KPMG placed it fifth globally, behind Singapore, New York, Tel Aviv and Beijing. Additionally, London ranks number one in Europe with Paris and Berlin following.

KPMG’s survey also identified three assets a city needs to have in order to find access as a tech hub: an urban locale that attracts young professionals, a pipeline of skilled talent, and modern infrastructure, including high-speed bandwidth. London has all this in abundance and over the past 20 years, the city has developed a thriving and rapidly-growing tech community that is driving much of the innovation in Europe.

According to the London Assembly website, more than a third of all Europe’s tech giants are based in London and the sector contributes over £56bn to the city’s economy. These days, one in five jobs in the city is in the sector.

Many factors

There are many interconnecting factors that have contributed to this explosive growth, including an abundance of excellent educational institutions, a wide range of talent from the UK and beyond (37 per cent of people living in London were born outside the UK) which creates a diverse workforce to draw on and excellent transport links to the rest of Europe.

London’s traditional prominence as a financial services centre has also helped it to succeed, and it is no surprise that fintech is big news. Britain’s first bank was founded on Threadneedle Street in 1694 and today, the city’s success stories are the challenger banks. These digital-only institutions use cloud-based infrastructure and AI to deliver easier and faster access to banking services. Leading the pack in this field are Revolut, Starling Bank, and Monzo.

As a direct result of the fintech industry as well as concentrated investment, cybersecurity is booming too. According to the City of London, The UK cybersecurity market is the largest, most concentrated, and most accessible cyber market in Europe, and is worth almost £8.3bn.

Talent is another reason why cybersecurity has emerged as a key player in recent years. London universities such as King’s College, London Met, and the University of West London offer a variety of different degrees in this field. Naturally, this creates an expert talent pipeline and the UK now has the largest cybersecurity workforce in Europe, with 27 per cent of cyber jobs based in London.

World-leading firms are located here such as PWC and Ernst & Young (EY). Start-ups include Hadrian, involved in improving digital security of global organisations, and Cado Security, which provides a cloud investigation platform designed to allow security teams to respond to threats in cloud workloads quickly.

Blockchain, too, is big news and London tops the list for blockchain employment opportunities with 16 per cent of international job openings being based in the city. This is in part thanks to London’s universities which are at the forefront of research in the blockchain space. UCL, for example, is a partner in Ripple’s prestigious $50m (£45.2m) University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI).

All-in-all, it’s a good time to be in tech in London. If you want to make a move here or are looking to move within the sector, we have three roles below that are worth a look, as well as plenty more to discover on the Growth Business job board.

Senior IAM Security Engineer (IGA), Indeed, London

As an IAM security engineer III for Indeed, you will design, build, and deploy an identity lifecycle management system, establish access certifications, develop an RBAC framework, implement birthright access, and access governance workflows.

The right candidate will be someone with high standards and who will take pride in Indeed. You’ll be well versed in your discipline, have managed security engagements, and earned the respect of talented technology engineers. You are equally happy talking concepts and exploring best practices as you are directly executing significant security initiatives. Find out what you’ll need to do the job here.

China Economist m/f/t, RWE Supply & Trading, London

RWE Supply & Trading is looking to enhance its team, with an economist specialising in China. Your main focus will be to understand and interpret global economic and geopolitical factors which have an impact on global commodities.

You’ll need a university degree in economics, finance, mathematics, physics or equivalent, as well as several years of working experience as an economist and first relevant working exposure in an energy trading environment. Additionally, you’ll require very strong quantitative and analytical skills. Find out more here.

Senior Finance Business Partner, RSSB, London

The senior finance business partner (FBP) is critical in driving RSSB to deliver its strategic objectives. You’ll lead in delivering reports and working directly with senior stakeholders and you will represent and champion finance and the finance department across the business.

You will need to be a fully qualified accountant with effective technical accounting knowledge, and have a track record of delivering management accounting, including contribution to management information and budgets. Discover more about the role here.

Discover thousands more job opportunities in tech on the Growth Business job board.