UK tech companies have raised more venture capital funding so far this year than in the whole of 2020.
This puts the UK second to the US globally when it comes to start-up investment and means UK start-ups are outperforming those in China, France and India, when it comes to attracting funding, according to data by Dealroom analysed for the UK’s Digital Economy Council.
So far, more than 950 UK tech start-ups and scale-ups have raised £12.4bn in 2022, compared to £12bn for the whole of 2020.
In a record-breaking first quarter, UK tech raised £9bn, up from £6.3bn the same time last year, with the UK ahead of India and China when it comes to startup funding, as well as raising more than double the funding raised by French tech companies.
This influx of capital means the UK is now home to 122 unicorns, with more than 20 cities and towns home to at least one unicorn, and 248 futurecorns. More than a third of the fastest-growing next-generation tech companies in Europe are now based in the UK.
The new data coincides with the launch of London Tech Week, which brings together leading names from across the UK’s digital industries.
London has dominated tech investment in Europe this year, raising £8.6bn, double Paris (£3.9bn) and over four times the amount of Berlin (£1.9bn).
It’s not just London that is thriving in Europe – Bristol and Oxford both made it into the top 20 European tech hubs for investment raised this year, raising £220m and £248m respectively.
Bristol-based ClearBank, the UK’s new clearing bank, raised £181m in March, whilst Oxford-based drug discovery company OMass Therapeutics raised £75.5m in a Series B round in April.
Figures show tech firms in Wales have raised £18.1m so far this year. This included £6.1m raised by fintech venture Delio, Sero, which is delivering zero carbon homes (£5.5m) and Agxio, and AI and data science biotech (£2.1m).
After fintech, healthtech was the second-most popular sector for investment so far in 2020, with around £791m invested. Outside of fintech, the largest investment round this year was for CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full-fibre infrastructure platform, which raised £300m in investment by Mubadala Capital Ventures in March to bring full-fibre networks to homes and businesses across the UK.
Impact tech companies, which are using technology to solve challenges including climate change, are continuing to grow and scale across the UK. Last year, more than £2.7bn was invested in impact startups - representing the most ever, in a single year.
In 2022 so far tech businesses focusing on impact have raised over £791m. The largest investment raised by an impact startup this year was for Carbon Clean Solutions, a London-based carbon capture company which raised over £118m in a Series C round in May.
Yoram Wijngaarde, founder and chief executive at Dealroom, said: “Despite the wider global challenges that have led to a slow down in public markets, private tech investment in the UK is continuing to grow.”
Adding: “Nearly everything will be affected by the downturn we’ve entered into, but overall the UK tech sector is in a strong position than it’s ever been before in terms of breadth and depth of the entire ecosystem.”
