UK technology companies have secured the lion’s share of European venture funding so far this year.
VC investment in UK tech startups and scaleups is up 16% in H1, with startups and scaleups raising £7.4 billion in total, according to new data released by Dealroom.
This equates to nearly a third of all venture capital funding (32%) in Europe this year (£23bn).
UK tech companies raised more than France and Germany combined (£6.8bn) and more than five times Switzerland (£1.25bn).
This was largely driven by later-stage rounds in AI, FinTech and energy, particularly Wayve’s £861 million Series C round to develop embodied AI products for automated driving.
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Monzo also raised another late-stage round of £149m, following its £331m round in Q1 2024, with Abound raising £400m, Highview Power £300m and Char.gy £100m.
London investment is up 30% already in 2024 to £5.3bn, taking 71% of all the investment raised in the UK so far. This was ahead of Paris (£2.4bn) and Stockholm (£940m).
Cambridge also made the top 10 European cities for funding, with £517m raised by the city’s tech companies so far, up 83% on 2023’s figures. This included legal AI tech company Luminance raised £31.3m, whilst lithium ion parts supplier Echion Technologies raised £29m.
Across Europe, Generative AI had its strongest quarter on record with £2bn raised across multiple companies, whilst energy continues to be the most funded sector in 2024, with £4.3bn raised in total.