2021 another record year for UK cyber investment
The UK cyber safety trade noticed another record year for gross sales, investment and job creation in 2021, with all three metrics up considerably on earlier years, based on statistics from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), printed at the moment.
The division’s Annual Cyber Sector Report – which tracks the expansion and efficiency of the safety trade – revealed that cyber companies contributed £5.3bn to the UK financial system in 2021, up 33% on 2020 and the biggest soar since DCMS began monitoring the sector in 2018.
There are roughly 1,840 energetic safety companies within the nation, with over 50% of them now based mostly outdoors London and the South East. Between them, they’re now thought to make use of 52,700 folks, up 6,000 on the prior interval.
In the previous 12 months, these companies generated £10.1bn in income, up 14% on the earlier monetary year, and attracted over £1bn in exterior investment throughout 84 offers. Some of the extra notable funding rounds embrace a £53.5m funding injection for Immersive Labs, a Bristol-based safety workforce optimisation specialist, and £52m for Tessian, a London-based e-mail safety providers provider.
“Cyber security firms are major contributors to the UK’s incredible tech success story. Hundreds of British firms from Edinburgh to Bristol are developing and selling cutting-edge cyber tools around the world that make it safer for people to live and work online,” stated digital secretary Nadine Dorries.
“We are investing in skills training and business initiatives to help the UK go from strength to strength as a global cyber power and open up the sector to people from all walks of life.”
DCMS stated the UK had clearly established itself as a world chief in areas comparable to community safety expertise, menace monitoring {and professional} providers, and greater than 300 UK-based safety companies now have a presence overseas, largely within the US and Europe. Foreign-headquartered safety firms additionally proceed to be interested in the UK market, with US-based companies representing 10% of UK-based cyber firms.
Many of those firms have been supported by government-backed schemes offered by way of a number of avenues, together with the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC’s) programmes for startups and bursaries, and innovation hubs comparable to Plexal.
Lorna Armitage is co-founder of safety coaching agency Capslock, certainly one of many break-out UK safety scaleups which have benefited from elevated authorities assist by way of programmes comparable to Plexal’s Cyber Runway.
“The support of Plexal and government-funded programmes like Cyber Runway has enabled Capslock to accelerate our growth from a young startup in 2020 to the ‘most innovative cyber security SME of 2021’, as named by DCMS,” she stated.
“Our relationship with Plexal has [also] given us a great platform to talk about our commitment to promoting equality and diversity in the cyber security industry. For example, we spoke to fellow Cyber Runway members about the challenges faced by female co-founders and women in cyber.”
