A total of 706 venture capital (VC) funding deals worth $7.2 billion were announced in the United Kingdom during the first half (H1) of 2023. Both VC funding deals volume and value witnessed a considerable year-on-year (YoY) decline during the period. While the number of VC funding deals declined by 28.6%, the corresponding deal value saw a massive 54.7% drop, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that a total of 989 VC funding deals were announced in the UK during H1 2022 while the corresponding investment value stood at $15.9 billion.
Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Although the UK experienced subdued VC funding activity in H1 2023, the impact was more prominent in terms of value. In fact, the total investment value more than halved in H1 2023 compared to H1 2022. Europe has been grappling with multiple challenges while the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict further aggravated the dampened investor sentiments. And since the UK happens to be the top European market, it is not immune to the impact of the challenges grappling the region.”
Apart from being the top European market, the UK also remains among the top five markets globally in terms of VC funding deal volume as well as value. The UK accounted for 6.4% share of the total number of VC funding deals announced globally during H1 2023 while its share of corresponding deal value stood at 5.7%.
Some of the notable VC funding deals announced in the UK during H1 2023 include $602 million worth of funding raised by Abound, $250 million secured by Builder.ai, $250 million worth funding raised by EToro, among others.
