Member Article

Brexit and the future of UK tech industry

Brexit has been the talk of businesses up and down the country over the past fortnight. Many eagerly discussing what the future holds for their business and industries and one sector this applies to more than others is technology. In the wake of Brexit the UK technology sector appears to be feeling rather gloomy about its future, but Tech City UK believe there are some reasons for optimism.

The Bad

Some alarming stats and feedback was revealed this week about just how much people are worried about the growth of businesses in the technology sector. In a world where technology is evolving faster than anything else, how can this be so? 74% of those interviewed thought the economy would get worse and the biggest concern off the back of that was talent and recruitment.

Over half the people believed it would be difficult to recruit and retain the best staff with a quarter considering scaling back their growth plans. This would have a knock on effect on recruitment with just shy of a third believing that would slow down. But people and businesses always want new technology and new ways of developing processes and operations, so surely the requirement will still be there?

The Good

In recent days, a number of announcements have been made about UK tech firms receiving new funding. US investor KKR put nearly £50m into security firm Darktrace, Revolut, a London-based currency exchange app, raised nearly £8m whilst a £5m investment was made for music ticket website Festicket. Clear evidence that investment and prosperous growth is there.

The Reality

Although these stories are great for those receiving the funding, we do not know of the many companies who fail to get the funding they had anticipated just a month earlier. In a competitive marketplace, those who have received funding will now feel a competitive advantage over those that haven’t It is clear that the UK still has countless young and bright tech entrepreneurs with ambitious ideas to break into the market. Although many were clearly disappointed by the referendum result, the tech industry has business with confidence in their abilities and will be looking for minimum further barriers in their path to a prosperous future.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Agile Group .