SCOTTISH fast-growth businesses are still enjoying vast amounts of venture capital (VC) investment, despite facing a global geopolitical and macroeconomic environment of uncertainty, KPMG UK’s latest figures show.
41 deals were completed by Scottish scale-up businesses in the first quarter (Q1) this year, raising a total of more than £180 million.
In the same Q1 period last year, just £64m was raised.
And in the previous quarter (Q4 2021) £97.6m of VC investment was secured by Scottish companies, contributing to the total of £626m raised that year.
Of note are deals made this quarter by Edinburgh games developer Everywhere and Glasgow based Katrick Technologies which secured £94m and £5.07m respectively.
Amy Burnett, KPMG Private Enterprise Senior Manager in Scotland, said: “Despite concerns around the uncertainty in the economy and rising interest rates, Scotland continues to demonstrate resilience in attracting VC investment. Fintech, B2B-focused services and healthtech remain top areas.
“The power of our disruptive businesses to deliver impact on a global scale is more important than it’s ever been, and our innovators are a real success story.
“The collective focus on nurturing and supporting the Scottish scaleup ecosystem is great to see. It will no doubt help develop more exciting businesses across Scotland.”
The majority of VC investment is still funnelled into London (£5.2 billion) but “VC investment in UK innovators based outside of London has more than doubled since the pandemic”.
Graeme Williams, M&A director at KPMG UK, said: “A combination of a rise in corporate backed VC, more private equity funds looking for better returns, and increasing fundraising focused on earlier stage companies to achieve higher returns have helped contribute to a solid Q1 to build on moving forward.”
