For more than a decade, the UK has talked about how to build globally competitive technology companies. On most measures, that ambition has been achieved.
The UK now produces companies capable of competing at the highest level, particularly in areas such as data, AI and enterprise infrastructure.
But a structural problem remains. The UK is good at building technology companies, but UK businesses and government have been less effective at buying from them.
This is increasingly visible in the numbers. Many UK scaleups generate the majority of their revenue overseas while seeing limited adoption at home, often despite significant investment in domestic sales and marketing.
At Cirata, for example, 76% of revenue comes from US banks, with less than 2% from UK banks. Cirata is LSE-listed, UK headquartered, with engineering and product centres in Belfast and the North of England. Its IP, patents and innovation are UK-based. That pattern is not unusual. It is not a reflection of product quality or technical strength....
