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Volatile Markets Impact Venture Capital Investment

The VC funding value nosedived by 57.6% to $708.3 million in August, the second consecutive month of decline in VC funding activity for the UK in 2022.

Last year, 2022, continued to have mixed results with UK venture capital activity hitting a new low in August, falling below $1 billion for the first time that year.

The VC funding value nosedived by 57.6% to $708.3 million in August, the second consecutive month of decline in VC funding activity for the UK in 2022.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: 

“High inflation, changing political scenarios and geopolitical tensions seem to have made investors adopt a cautious approach. Resultantly, we are seeing a drop in the VC funding activity.”

Nevertheless, the UK is one of the top five countries for global venture capital funding activity. A total of 1,083 VC funding deals were announced in the UK during January-July 2022 with a funding value of $18 billion.

In 2021 UK startups received more than $100bn of venture capital - three times the level of 2020. And the UK is still Europe’s leading startup hub and continues to attract notable investments in some UK start-ups despite unfavourable market conditions. 

UK Funding Deals

Some of the big UK funding deals during 2022 included:

  • Checkout.com, a global payments platform - $1 billion

  • SumUp, a mobile point-of-sale fintech company - $621.7 million

  • GoCardless, a global payments network - $312 million

  • Wayve, an autonomous driving system - $200 million

  • Paddle.com, a payments infrastructure provider for SaaS companies - $200 million

  • Yulife, a tech-driven insurance company - $120 million

  • Oxford Science Enterprises, a university partnered venture firm investing in early-stage life science, AI & software and deep tech - $300 million

  • Entrepreneur First, brings ambitious founders together to build technology companies - $158 million

US Investment

The majority of the money coming into UK tech is from the US, with 37% of all funding coming from the US, up from 31.5% in 2021, with the majority of it going into fintech and health tech companies.

Richard Wheeler Associates works with technology-led companies in to recruit highly skilled, specialist people.

Contact us to find out more or find out more about our work with VC firms.