UK Tech Hiring Growth Trends Report

Inclusion criteria

• The company is UK-based or has significant UK engineering presence.
• The company is actively hiring for technical roles such as software developers or infrastructure engineers.

Focus on startups and scaleups

To focus on emerging companies and technology trends, this report primarily considers startups and scaleups with 1-500 employees, unless otherwise specified.

Industry segments

Industry comparisons concentrate on the most prominent technical industries of AI, Blockchain, Consultancy, Data & Analytics, E-Commerce, FinTech, HealthTech, InsurTech, Security, and Sustainability, which together represent 78% of all companies tech companies hiring.

Growth calcuations

Headcount changes over the past 12 months were compared to determine percentage growth, offering a clear picture of how quickly different sectors and regions are scaling. Companies lacking reliable headcount data were excluded from these growth calculations.

Who is hiring?

Of the companies hiring with a headcount between 1-500, a notable 270 (46%) of these businesses are between 51-200 employees, demonstrating that hiring is currently being driven by scaleup-sized tech ventures that have moved beyond early startup into sustained growth.

However, earlier stage companies are still contributing significantly in terms of raw companies hiring- 159 companies (24% of the group) are 50 people or less.

Who is driving more growth?

Both startups (1-50 headcount) and early to late stage scaleups (51-500 headcount) play a critical role in the growth of the tech ecosystem. Startups are responsible for rapid growth rates averaging 33% across all companies in the data set Vs the 15% average of late stage scaleups. Later stage scaleups, however dominate on total headcount added. Despite being the smallest group of total companies hiring, late stage scaleups (201-500 headcount) are responsible for over 6,000 headcount added into the tech industry.

Rapidly growing startups to watch

20 startups over doubled their team size in the past 12 months. The breadth of innovation in this hyper-growth set ranged from LegalTech Lawhive (306% growth), to space startup Lumi Space (157% growth), to FinTech startup Capi Money (150% growth), to AI materials science company Orbital (140% growth).

These companies stand as bright examples of what is possible for young, ambitious companies in the UK. See the UK Tech Growth Rankings for full list.

Scaleups driving UK growth

Scale-ups lead considerably for absolute job creation. 19 companies each hired over 100 new employees. Automated driving scaleup Wayve led the pack with nearly 200 hires, growing to 438 overall. While men's health scaleup Manual and AI Video scaleup Synthesia each added over 150 people to their company.

This distribution highlights an evolving UK tech ecosystem increasingly propelled by scaleup ventures that have moved beyond early startup stages.

Which has the biggest demand for tech talent?

FinTech dominates hiring activity among UK startups and scaleups (1-500 employees), accounting for 21% of companies hiring, followed by AI (12.5%) and Consultancy at (10.9%).

Data & Analytics (7.3%), Security (6.3%), and HealthTech (5.6%) also show strong hiring momentum, while emerging sectors like Sustainability (2.9%) and Blockchain (2.4%) remain smaller but are set to grow as their markets mature.

Which saw the biggest workforce expansion?

Over the past 12 months, the FinTech sector led the way in tech hiring, adding 2,127 new headcount, reflecting the industry's rapid expansion and sustained investor interest. AI was not far behind with 1,630 new hires, highlighting the sector's continued surge as companies integrate machine learning and automation at scale.

Consultancy (993) and HealthTech (938) also saw significant workforce growth, reflecting demand for tech-driven solutions across more established industries. Meanwhile, E-Commerce (803) and Data & Analytics (741) continued their steady climb, driven by evolving consumer behaviours and data-driven decision-making.

High-growth FinTech companies to watch

With FinTech dominating overall headcount growth, a handful of companies still rose above the rest. Debt market intelligence scaleup 9Fin added 120 people to their team. Whilst consumer finance startups Lendable & financing platform YouLend added 68 and 73 employees respectively.

Which are scaling the fastest?

When it comes to speed of scaling, companies working at the cutting edge of new technologies are outpacing the rest.

AI's hiring velocity & volume wins overall

AI is emerging as a key growth engine, with the second highest average growth per company (35%) and the second highest percentage of companies hiring (12.5%), as companies race to integrate AI-driven solutions, investment and hiring in the sector continues to accelerate. Data & analytics perform well in both categories too - possibly underlining the importance of the data ecosystem with AI.

Blockchain is scaling at breakneck speed

When it comes to pure percentage growth, Blockchain leads the pack. While representing just 2.4% of the companies indexed, it boasts an average 40.5% growth rate, surpassing every other sector in the speed of team scaling. This outperformance is especially clear when reviewing total headcount added: Blockchain accounted for 3.84% of overall hiring growth - a 56% over-performance on its market share.

Fastest growing companies at the frontier of tech

Showcasing the range of applications of frontier technologies are some of the highest growing companies in the space. Mimica AI - the AI enterprise efficiency company grew by 165%. Samaya, building AI agents for financial institutions, saw a 130% growth. And Nillion, who are building humanity's first blind computer, grew by 122%.

Is London still leading?

London's leadership in the UK tech scene is evident, with nearly 75% of the companies in the dataset calling the capital home. The growth of UK companies outperforms the rest of the UK too. The 500 London-based businesses hiring recorded a 23% growth in headcount, well above the 14% rate of the tech companies in other regions.

Regional tech companies still show notable growth

In spite of this, several regional clusters are displaying strong growth. Bristol features high-growth startups such as One Big Circle, which increased its team by 56%, and Snap Analytics, which rose by 76%. Cambridge-based Gearset recorded a 33.7% jump. In Manchester, Dizplai expanded by 37% and the more established Apadmi grew by 26% adding 62 headcount to its mobile app development team.

Overall, the data reveals a bright a picture of a growing and diversified tech ecosystem in the UK.

FinTech acts as a cornerstone for volume of hiring and growth, AI is responsible for some of the fastest growth rates, and Blockchain and other emerging fields demonstrate strong gains from smaller foundations. London stands out for its concentration of companies and higher growth percentages, but regional cities like Bristol, Cambridge, and Manchester show they can also compete.

The findings reinforce the UK's reputation as a hub for both emerging startups and scaling tech businesses. Thousands of tech companies are hiring, hundreds of early stage startups are growing at speed and over 10,000 new employees have been added to the ecosystem in the past 12 months.