According to research and analytics firm GlobalData, the United Kingdom saw a venture capital funding value of $6.8 billion between January 2024 and May 2024.
This shows a 1.6 per cent increase in VC funding from January to may 2024, despite a YoY drop of 17.3 per cent in transaction volume. According to the data there were 601 venture capital transactions made during the period with a reported funding of $6.7 billion.
Aurojyoti BOSE, GlobalData’s lead analyst, said that the decline in deal volume experienced in the UK between January and May 2024 was in line the global trend. Top markets like the US and China have also seen a drop in the number deals.
“In the meantime the improvement in value recorded during the five months of 2024 can be attributed to two billion-dollar deals in May (valued at more than or equal $1 billion).” he added.
Some prominent deals
Exohood Labs raised $112 million, Skyports secured $110,000,000, and Build A Rocket Boy raised $110,000,000.
Bose said that the UK was the top European market in terms of VC funding activity. It was also one of the top five global markets both in terms VC deal volume and value between January and May 2024.
The UK accounted 7.2 percent of global VC transactions, and its share in the equivalent reported funding was 6.5 percent for the first five months 2024.
The UK leads Europe in GenAI startups
According to a survey by venture capital firm Accel the UK has the most generative AI (GenAI), followed by Germany and Israel. Accel found that 30 percent of GenAI companies were located in the UK. 14 percent were in Germany and 13 percent were in Israel. The Netherlands and France were responsible for 11 percent and six percent of all founding nations, respectively.
GenAI is a machine intelligence that can create images, videos, and other types of information using models built on massive amounts of data.
The UK’s top universities, its history in founding the AI company Deepmind in 2010 and the investment made in the country by American tech entrepreneurs has helped boost the nation’s AI industry.
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