In 2017, we launched the Tyto Tech 500 Power List 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, as we launch the 5^th annual Tech 500 report, our objective assessment of influence across the pan-European tech sector is more comprehensive than ever. We’ve expanded our analysis of influencers in France from a Top 100 to a Top 500 list, as in the other two countries, and have tracked new technology categories at the cutting edge of science, including quantum computing and SpaceTech.

So what have we learned in our fifth year of examining and identifying influence?

Tech 500 2021 key findings

Our first key takeaway is that GreenTech is more relevant than ever. In fact, in the pan-European Tech 500 list, GreenTech has risen to fourth most populated category among the 17 technology sectors we analysed.

Sustainability and environment issues remain a key topic sitting high up the political, social and media agenda. Plus, the COP26 Climate Change conference saw world leaders making historic commitments and pledges to cut carbon emissions and limit global warming. New technologies will be essential in making these pledges become reality, which reflects why the number of GreenTech influencers in this year’s ranking increased across all three countries. Growth in the UK was 160% and in Germany 47%. In France, GreenTech influencers have increased from only 2% of the total to 6.4%.

Our next key takeaway concerns Covid-19. Last year, the pandemic significantly reshaped the influencer landscape, and its impact can still be seen in this year’s report. The successful development and rollout of new vaccines (as well as the unfortunate emergence of newer and potentially deadlier variants of the virus) has meant that epidemiologists, immunologists and many other health experts have become vital in helping us all to explain and understand Covid-19.

As a result, the influence of people involved in biotechnology and HealthTech have risen dramatically. People such as Kate Bingham (former head of the UK vaccine taskforce), Chris Whitty (England’s chief medical officer) and Özlem Türeci (co-founder of BioNTech, which developed the first approved Covid-19 vaccine) have become some of the most influential figures of the past year. Furthermore, the number of BioTech influencers in the pan-European Tech 500 list has grown by 69% and the volume of HealthTech influencers has increased by 35%. In 2021, one in 10 influencers in the Top 500 list across the UK, Germany and France belongs to one of these two sectors.

Similarly, as a result of the pandemic, the influence of politicians, government advisors and academics has increased. People sought out expert opinions to understand the virus, as well as what impact lifting Covid-related restrictions would have on case numbers. As such, the number of influencers in our ranking from the academic sector has grown by 74.4% and those from the governmental sector by 57.1%. In fact, most of the top positions in the pan-European ranking are occupied by government or academic influencers: 30% of the top 100 and 52% of the top 25 belong to one of these two groups.

One final takeaway is perhaps more concerning, as we discovered a low representation of influential women in the European tech sector. Only one in five of the pan-European top 500 influencers are women (22%). France is the least diverse country with the lowest percentage of women in the Tech 500 (11.1% of all the French influencers), Germany is below average (19.2%), while the UK is above average with the highest proportion of women in the overall top 500 list across the three countries (24.2%).

Unfortunately, this reflects the wider gender imbalance that exists in the technology sector. This gender disparity is widely reported and it’s something Tyto is seeking to help address through the Tyto Foundation and our work with the Tech Talent Charter. Hopefully, we will see greater female representation in next year’s report.

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 today. You will also find the ranking of the top 100 most influential individuals across all three countries and the list of the top 100 tech influencers in each country.

Zoë Clark, senior partner and Head of Media and Influence at Tyto

Each year, the Tyto Tech 500 Power List identifies the most influential individuals across the UK in business, media and government. Over the past few years, we have seen more and more leading women represented in the rankings, thanks to a global push for more female leaders and influencers in the technology sector.

Unfortunately, that trend has come to a halt in 2020, as the proportion of women in the UK rankings has fallen from 34% in 2019 to 28%. Last year, there were four women in the UK Top 10, but this year there are just two.

So why has gender inequality widened in this year’s report? A major factor is, of course, the coronavirus. Study after study by the likes of the UN and the World Economic Forum show that women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

With schools and daycare centres forced to close, it was found that women were more likely to be burdened with childcare: research by the Fawcett Society showed that a third of working mothers reported having lost work or hours due to a lack of childcare during the crisis. Earlier this month, a report by the International Labour Organization showed that without subsidies such as coronavirus furlough schemes, women would have lost 8.1% of their wages in the second quarter of 2020, compared with 5.4% for men, according to a sample of 28 European countries. The UN has warned that improvements to gender equality risk being rolled back because of Covid-19.

It is highly unlikely that the influencer landscape has been unaffected by these economic trends. Clearly, there is much work to do in 2021 to achieve greater gender diversity in the technology industry.

It’s worth mentioning that while women are in the minority of influencers in all three countries covered in the Tyto Tech 500 Power List, women’s influence on the tech sector remains higher than their actual representation in it: only 17% of jobs within the tech sector are held by women. In France, women made up 27% of the rankings. In Germany, female representation in the influencer landscape actually improved, rising from 18% in last year’s Tech 500 Power List to 19% this year, with three women making it into the Top 10, compared to just one last year.

Who are some of the women to feature in this year’s Tech 500 Power List? The top-ranking female influencer in the UK is Liz Ashall-Payne, CEO of the health app evaluation and distribution organisation ORCHA. Her placement at #3 reflects the growing importance of digital health solutions and the broader focus on healthcare in the context of Covid-19.

The next highest placement is Emily Gosden, energy editor of The Sunday Times. Gosden has fallen from 1st place in last year’s report to 10th this year, as the coronavirus increased the influence of politicians: 40% of the UK Top 10 are government representatives. However, her high placement still reflects the prominence of GreenTech in the influencer landscape, as well as the continued importance of environmental issues.

Overall, while it is disappointing that gender inequality has increased in this year’s report, hopefully, this is a temporary blip and women’s voices will cut through once again in next year’s Power List. To find out more about the top female influencers in Europe, download the full report today.

Tyto Tech 500: Top 10 UK Women Influencers

1. Liz Ashall-Payne – ORCHA
2. Emily Gosden – The Times
3. Amanda Solloway – Government
4. Sarah Knapton – The Telegraph
5. Ashley Armstrong – The Times
6. Mary Portas – Portas
7. Alison Clark-Wilson – UCL
8. Elena Cinquegrana – BP
9. Anne-Marie Imafidon – Stemettes
10. Ecaterina Harling – EBRD

How Covid-19 has reshaped the influencer landscape

One year ago, I doubt anyone could have predicted how 2020 would have developed. Covid-19 has impacted every facet of our lives, both professional and personal.

The economy took a serious hit as a result of the restrictions imposed to deal with the pandemic, though thankfully we are starting to see green shoots of recovery as we enter the new year, not least due to the positive news that several successful vaccines have been produced.

And from compiling this year’s Tech 500 report, it’s clear that the virus has reshaped the influencer landscape as well. This year’s report is more comprehensive than ever, as for the first time we have tracked the top influencers in the French market and produced a combined Top 100 list of influencers across the key European markets of Germany, France and the UK.

The most notable change to this year’s rankings is that the influence of government figures and academics has demonstrably risen. 34 government officials or representatives made it into the list this year, the vast majority of them from the UK, and Britain’s health minister Matt Hancock came top of the overall Power List. Hancock previously ranked at 11th in 2019, and 20th in 2018.

Perhaps it is unsurprising that politicians and professors should feature so prominently in the listings. Covid-19 has generated huge amounts of political and economic uncertainty this year, especially during the start of the pandemic when we knew so little about this new disease. In an era of fake news and conspiracy theories, it is a positive sign that most people turned and listened to reputable sources of information to reassure us, help us understand what was happening and what precautions we should be taking.

Other developments have been less positive. For instance, gender diversity in the Tech 500 has diminished this year.

For the last three years, female representation in the Tech 500 has steadily increased, peaking at 34% in 2019’s list. This year, their share of representation among the top influencers has fallen to 28% in the UK, while in France 27% of influencers are women. In Germany, on the other hand, there was a slight increase from 18% to 19%, and three women made it into the German Top 10, compared to just one in 2019.

While female representation has improved in some sectors, such as FoodTech and AgriTech in the UK and SecureTech in Germany, the overall decline is troubling. Again, much of the blame likely falls with Covid-19: with schools forced to shut, it has been suggested that the burden of childcare disproportionately impacted working mothers. Clearly more needs to be done to champion women’s voices, and hopefully we will see this decline be reversed in next year’s report.

Looking at the mix of sectors present in the Top 500, some have fallen much more than others. For example, the number of FinTech influencers in the listings dropped by 33% in Germany and 34% in the UK. This change likely reflects the impact of Covid-19, which pushed the UK, German and French economies into recession. In times of economic turmoil, people are more likely to seek safety with the big traditional banks, rather than take a risk on a FinTech start-up. But with the economy set to recover next year, there is scope for the sector to regain some ground in the influencer landscape.

In contrast to FinTech’s decline, GreenTech grew its share of the Top 500 by 36% in the UK and 21% in Germany. This confirms a prediction we made last year that GreenTech would feature more prominently in the 2020 rankings.

Why has the influence of GreenTech grown? Partly because Covid-19 has gotten us to think more about our environment. Carbon emissions are down due to remote working and reduced air travel, and the pandemic proved that our supply chains and economies aren’t as resilient or as sustainable as perhaps we’d like them to be. “Build Back Better” became the rallying cry of politicians and activists everywhere in 2020. And now, with the end of the pandemic in sight, people are thinking about how we can harness the same collective energy used to tackle the virus and apply it to tackling climate change.

Clearly, the ripple effect of Covid-19 has been felt across the influencer landscape. Most likely, it will continue to be felt throughout 2021, and these trends may still be evident in future Tech 500 Power Listings. Download the full report, today.