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The technology boom in Wales is showing no signs of slowing down. The latest company to be celebrating success in Wales is Sony. Doubling its workforce in the region over the past 12 months, the tech giant has announced that 10 million of the 14 million Raspberry Pi devices it’s shipped so far were produced in Wales.
"The last five years has seen unprecedented growth across our Pencoed facility, something we are understandably incredibly proud of," Sony’s UK TEC managing director Steve Dalton said. “Our growth has been intrinsically linked to the success of the Raspberry Pi and we are delighted to reach the 10m manufacturing milestone. This is a significant achievement for everyone involved in its production, especially our devoted Sony Team, the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and distributors Premier Farnell."
Raspberry Pi’s creator Eben Upton also praised the partnership with Sony. “The last five years has been extremely exciting for us as we watched the Raspberry Pi become Britain’s best-selling computer of all time," he said. "We are particularly delighted that the Pi has set the benchmark for utilising innovative and progressive manufacturing right here in the UK, as it was always our wish to make the computers in this country."
The success of Sony and Raspberry Pi is just one example of the growing technology industry in Wales. The number of technology companies setting up shop in Wales is rising at an incredible rate. Start-ups in Cardiff and Swansea in particular are popping up every week, as Wales’ big cities redefine the way they make money. And according to industry experts it is only a matter of time until Cardiff develops its first unicorn (a start-up valued at $1 billion).
James Smith, chief executive and co-founder of IT consultancy DevOpsGuys has seen Wales grow from a place of sparse opportunity into a thriving technology hub destined for success. “Wales needs success stories of people who have put a business together and grown it, so others can understand how it was done,” he says. “My view is that, here in Cardiff, we need to figure out how to build a unicorn.”
In fact, Wales is the fastest-growing tech employer outside of London. According to a recent report by Randstad, Cardiff and Swansea make up 17,471 employed digital jobs in 103 digital and tech startups.
