London is home to more software developers than any other European city, with over 466,000 software developers across the capital, compared to around 128,000 in Paris. (source: Statista)

For software developers, there is nowhere else in the UK or Europe that can match the number of career opportunities in startups, scaleups, SME’s or global tech giants. London claims 76% of the UK’s unicorns, including every single one of the 18 Fintech unicorns. Another important sector in attracting talent to London is Artificial Intelligence. AI companies were the biggest recipients of equity investment in 2023, attracting more UK investment than any other startup sector, unsurprisingly due to the success of OpenAI’s Chat GPT. Nine of the companies listed as new 2024 unicorns feature artificial intelligence in their products.

Why Do Software Developers Choose London?

Harry Nelis, partner at Accel, comments: 

“We compete for talent on the global talent market and look for deep engineering or product skills. These people are often located in Silicon Valley and are English speaking – it’s harder to convince them to move to Munich and Berlin…so it’s easier to build a big company in London. 

“But making it harder for college graduates to stay here is not that conducive to having a fluid labour market….anything the government does to restrict access greatly impacts these businesses.” 

Other reasons Software Developers cite for choosing London include high salaries compared to other European cities, the strong market for tech talent, the breadth of jobs available across a wide range of sectors (Fintech, healthtech, edtech, AI etc) and life in a truly multicultural city.

The key downside remains the cost of property. The move, post Covid, to remote/hybrid working has helped with living costs with many companies now willing to consider hiring developers who are located up to a 2 hour commute from a central London office. This is also attractive to developers who do not like the busy London lifestyle.

Europe’s Most Valuable Tech City

London is Europe’s most valuable tech city, with a combined market valuation of $649b in 2023. Other European cities that are major tech hubs are:

Paris - $216b
Amsterdam - $195b
Stockholm - $148b
Berlin - $138b
Munich - $115b
Cambridge - $105b
Dublin - $85b
Zurich - $78b

In recent years London has shown remarkable resilience in the face of post-Brexit economic uncertainty.

In-Demand Skills

According to Stack Overflow‘s 2024 Developer Survey, developers in London with these skills are most in-demand, (in order of popularity):

1. JavaScript/TypeScript
2. Python
3. Java
4. C#/.NET
5. React
6. Node.js
7. Angular
8. Vue.js
9. Docker/Kubernetes
10. AWS

Data from IT Jobs Watch also shows that software engineers in London with experience in machine learning, cybersecurity, blockchain, and cloud computing are seeing the highest salary offers.

The average salary for a software engineer in London is £56,710, as of July 2024 (source: Indeed). This is higher by at least £6k than salaries in any other UK tech hub.

AI and Innovation

At London Tech Week 2024, the capital’s mayor Sadiq Khan said: 

“Our city is one of the largest and most influential tech centres on the planet. We boast more than 100 unicorns; we are home to more software developers than any other European city.

“The big names from Google to Microsoft are expanding their operations here with investments that are making London a global hub for AI and innovation. “

London’s growth plans have AI and innovation at their core and aim to create 150,000 new jobs in London over the next four years.

The TechNation 2024 report, ‘UK Tech in the Age of AI’, finds that the UK is now the number one destination in Europe for AI investment, with the UK AI sector reaching a combined market valuation of $92bn in the first quarter of 2024. Most investment in UK AI went into AI companies operating in the Enterprise software ($1.1b), transport ($824m) and Fintech ($626m) sectors.

London Startup Ecosystem

London’s position as the number one destination for software developers and tech professionals seems secure. As well as high salaries there is also a thriving tech community, UK government support, world class universities, global tech conferences and a diverse tech workforce.

RWA works with world class tech startups, scaleups and SMEs in London to recruit global talent. We are accustomed to working with tech companies located across different countries and time zones - companies looking to recruit developers who could be based anywhere. 

Contact us to find out more.