London named among top five global tech cities

London has secured the fifth spot globally in the latest Savills Tech City ranking, while also attracting by far the most venture capital in Europe across a wide range of tech sectors. The UK capital beat Paris, which was ranked ninth globally, and Berlin, ranked 19th. The report measures a city’s business and tech environment, talent pool, city buzz and wellness. It spreads across different sub sectors, including AgTech and FoodTech, CeanTech and ClimateTech, Deep Tech, e-commerce, FinTech, industrial tech, life sciences and HealthTech, MediaTech, MobilityTech, software, and SpaceTech. Topping the overall Savills Tech City ranking was the San Francisco Bay Area, despite cooling local real estate markets and competition from lower-cost tech centres. New York was ranked as the world’s second-best tech hub, benefitting from access to a deep talent pool, while Silicon Valley took the third spot. Beijing came fourth, despite tighter controls by China on its big tech companies. Savills noted the city’s position was supported by a vast home market, established domestic tech ecosystems and continued global demand for Chinese-manufactured products. Savills world research director and Tech Cities project lead Paul Tostevin said: “While the factors that make the big tech cities perform well, such as the depth of their talent pools and the weight of money flowing into them, are enough to keep them at the top of our index, in some of our tech sub-sectors they are bested by much smaller rivals which have become hubs for dynamic sectors.” In the DeepTech subsector – covering artificial Intelligence, machine learning, nanotechnology, and big data – Bristol appeared 12th, while much bigger Shanghai and Paris – placed seventh and ninth respectively in the overall ranking – did not appear in the ranking. Savills also noted that rising tech cities, including Bristol, have lower costs which can make them more appealing for both tech workers and tech companies. However, some bigger cities are also working to create more inclusive urban development. For example, London community land trusts – local organisations run by community members to develop and manage affordable housing. Elsewhere, in the FinTech sector, covering payment tech, insurance tech, blockchain and cryptocurrency, New York and London were ranked as the two global leaders placing first and second respectively, while the finance hubs of Singapore, Tokyo and Chicago also scored highly. Savills reported there were $585.5bn (£488.5bn) of global venture capital volumes in tech sectors ready to be deployed at the end of 2022. See London investment information>> To send feedback, e-mail evelina.grecenko@eg.co.uk or tweet @Gre_Eve or @EGPropertyNews Image © Gerd Altmann/Pixabay