In 2017, we launched the Tyto Tech 500 as a way to identify the most influential figures within the UK technology sector and to understand what truly creates influence. We included Germany in our analysis in 2019 and added France the year after, to give us greater insight into Europe’s three largest economies. Today we release the 6th annual Tyto Tech 500 report and what appears to be clearer than ever this year is the relevance and prominence of technology in addressing global macro and economic issues. Here’s a summary of this year’s key findings.
Tyto Tech 500 2022 – key findings
1. Hottest tech topic: cybersecurity. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the rise in cybercrime, cyberwar and growing global geopolitical instability, the hottest topic this year within technology is cybersecurity. Experts in the field of cybersecurity have increased their prominence on the Tech 500 by 52%. Influencers on this topic have seen a huge 125% increase in the UK, followed by 24% in France and 16% in Germany.
2. Academics gain most ground: Overall, business leaders and journalists continue to be the most prevalent influencer types across UK, France and Germany, this year accounting for 58% and 19% respectively. Indeed, our 2022 overall number one influencer is Richard Branson, British business magnate, investor, and founder of the Virgin Group. However, it is the Academics that have gained the most significant ground in our rankings, up 25% across Europe since last year and 118% since 2020. Across the three countries, Germany has the biggest number of academics (37) but only gained 3% this year. The UK has seen the biggest growth of academic influencers with a 74% increase but sits behind Germany with 33 influencers in total. France is third with a 15% increase in academics on last year. This significant increase in the number of academics over the last couple of years shows how people are looking for objective sources of information. The public’s collective confidence in subject matter experts appears to be returning in full force and there are some notable examples of individuals that have found a substantial following from explaining and deconstructing the most pressing issues such as the current economic uncertainty, an energy crisis, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
3. Government influencers on the up: Like last year government influencers continue to grow in prominence with an increase of 11% in our rankings. Again, this increase is likely to stem from people seeking official sources of information and assurance around the action being taken to tackle global, economic, and social issues. The pandemic and elections in France and Germany also impacted the growth of government influencers particularly in the first part of the year.
4. Technology innovators driving industry forward: Entrepreneurs and VCs have seen the most significant gain in influence across the pan-European top 500 this year (the 500 most influential figures in the Tyto Tech 500), with increases of 146% and 88% respectively. Despite today’s troublesome times, it is heartening to see technology innovators bring positive influence and company successes to business discussions.
5. Women rise the ranks of influence: Another encouraging finding this year is the rise in prominence of women across all three countries. Women now make up one in four influencers at a pan-European level this year, a significant increase on last year where women accounted for only one in five influencers. There is still significant work to be done, but the trend is in the right direction.
6. SpaceTech and Quantum Technology influencers rocket: We added three new emerging sectors to watch to our rankings last year, and two of them this year have the highest percentage growth in the pan-European top 500 ranking compared to 2021: Quantum Technology (+267%) and SpaceTech (+200%). And we’re sure we’ll be seeing a lot more influencers in these sectors next year.
7. Journalists still key influence on tech industry: Journalists continue to play a fundamental role in influencing the technology industry. They account for 3 out of 10 influencers (29%) in the pan-European top 500 and are second only to business leaders. Across the overall Tyto Tech 500, the number of influential journalists has increased by 15% in two years, from 251 in 2020 to 288 this year. This upward trend acknowledges the true value that objective journalism brings to the industry.
These are the most influential individuals in tech in Europe
After the number one influencer in the UK Richard Branson, Stephen Fry, actor, tech evangelist and blogger takes second place, and Simon Calder, travel journalist at The Independent, is number three. In Germany, the first place this year goes to Carsten Maschmeyer, founder of the Maschmeyer Group, while Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is number two, and Jens Spahn, politician and former Federal Minister of Health takes the third place on the German Tyto Tech 500 list. In France, our top influencer is BFM tech journalist, François Sorel; second place goes to Thomas Pesquet, European Space Agency astronaut and academic; and Thierry Breton, European commissioner for the Internal market at the EU Commission takes the third place. Congratulations to Europe’s most relevant tech personalities featured on our Tech 500! 
To read about these trends in more detail, and to find out what else we discovered about Europe’s tech influencer landscape, download the full report here. You will also find the list of the top 100 tech influencers in the UK, Germany and France, and the ranking of the top 100 most influential individuals across all three countries.