London keeps crown as Europe's top tech investment hub

LONDON: London remains Europe's biggest hub for technology start-ups despite the twin challenges of Brexit and COVID, a study showed.

The Mayor's promotional agency London & Partners said $25.5 billion (22.4 billion euros) was invested in fledgling tech firms in 2021.

That was more than double the level in the previous year, L&P added in a statement citing figures from data specialist Dealroom.

Europe-wide tech investment also more than doubled to reach $115 billion.

"Despite the challenges posed by Brexit and coronavirus, the strong performance and rapid growth of London's tech sector in 2021 suggests the city is competing strongly on the world stage," the agency added.

London is also the fourth biggest global hub for tech sector investment.

Berlin is the only other European city in the top ten with tech investment of $11.1 billion.

San Francisco tops the list in first place with $100.9 billion.

Global tech start-up investment meanwhile doubled to a total of $675 billion.

The survey was published one day after online payments processing giant Checkout.com revealed that a new fundraising round took its value to $40 billion (35 billion euros), reportedly making it Britain's biggest fintech start-up.