TECHNOLOGY is one of Scotland’s biggest success stories and “we should be shouting about it from the rooftops”, according to Sir Tom Hunter.
Sir Tom, whose West Coast Capital investment arm was an investor in TVSquared, the Edinburgh-based advertising data company that was recently acquired by New York’s Innovid, attributed the sector’s success to Scotland’s highly skilled workforce.
Discussing the sale of TVSquared on the Go Radio Business Show with Hunter & Haughey, he said: “The Israeli founder [Zvika Netter] came to Edinburgh and one of the reasons he bought the business was because of the talent.
“Tech is one of our success stories,” he added. “Glasgow and Edinburgh are at the forefront of this and we should be shouting about it from the rooftops.”
Earlier, show host Donald Martin alluded to the UK Tech Cities report, which revealed that Scotland’s two largest cities had held onto their top five spots among the leading tech locations in the UK outside of London.
“Someone coming out of university here with the correct qualification and going into a tech job can get paid on a world scale, not just a UK scale, and that is something we should be proud of,” Sir Tom noted.
Lord Willie Haughey agreed that “we don’t do enough” to market Scotland’s tech sector but said some tech jobs were “too easily transferable”, stating: “Every time we start to build a decent company someone from the States or China comes along and snaps them up.
Pointing out that computer analysts and tech engineering jobs were not “easily moveable”, Sir Tom said: “As long as we are growing our own talent through our schools and our fantastic universities, those jobs are not as easily transportable."
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