US investments in Scots tech sector on the rise

Scotland attracted more '¨foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in 2015 than ever before, with major global players, including Apple Inc, JP Morgan and the Webhelp Group all making significant investments.

Apple is among the US firms to have invested in the Scottish tech sector. Picture: Wikicommons

There were 119 FDI projects in 2015, a 51 per cent increase on 2014, according to the EY Global Investment Monitor.

Scotland’s share of all UK FDI projects increased too, from nine per cent to 11 per cent - the highest proportion of UK projects secured by Scotland over the past decade.

The 2015 figures mean that Scotland has now overtaken the south east of England to become the UK’s second 
biggest area for FDI projects after London.

The software sector generated the largest investment into Scotland, where project numbers rose 170 per cent. and the stream of highly-qualified, work-ready graduates produced by our 19 universities.

In the last five years, according to the EY FDI Report 2016, a total of 407 FDI projects have set up in Scotland.

The bulk of this investment came from the US, accounting for almost 20 per cent of all projects tracked.

US-backed FDI projects also generated the largest share of investment - 452.9 million USD - and the highest number of new jobs – 5,239.

“We are delighted to see the growing levels of tech investment into Scotland from the US,” said Mark Newlands international sector head for technology and engineering at Scottish Development International.

“This significant trend illustrates the growing strength of our tech cluster and in our reputation as a place in which you can not only do business but also scale business.

“The US remains one of our primary markets from which to attract inward investment and we are deploying more resources and more effort in building on this fantastic success story for Scotland.”