Technology investment in Northern Ireland reached over £100 million in 2021, according to research from analyst firm Catalyst.

This represents a significant rise from the £5 million in total investment the region received in 2014, and a 127 per cent rise over 2020 levels.

2021 was also a record year in terms of the number of deals and average deal value in the region.

Northern Ireland’s average deal value in 2021 was more than £1.5 million according to the research, an increase of £387,000 on the previous year.

The research found there were a total of 66 technology investment deals, up from 39 in the year prior.

In October, Belfast-based gaming platform SideQuest raised £2.2 million from investors for a platform that connects VR content creators with users.

“2020 was a year of consolidation for investment across the UK – battening down the hatches as the impact of Covid forced investors to back their existing portfolio at the expense of doing new deals,” said Kieran Dalton, head of scaling at Catalyst. “However, as we all became more resilient to this new way of working, investment very quickly recovered and surpassed what we in NI have ever seen.”

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