UK tech investment in 2018 continued to power ahead

There doesn't appear to have been any slow down in tech investment during the course of 2018, with Q4 2018 ending a record year for the global VC market. This is, though, down to a number of particularly heavy weight deals and exits. Overall deal volume is down.

According to Beauhurst, by September of 2018 deal volume for 2018 was expected to be 1/3rd lower than for the previous year, with the median number of announced fundraisings from U.K. venture capital funds at the time standing at 8 (of 234 active funds). The most active at that time was apparently Index Ventures, with 374 investments announced (which was 216 more than the next). 

Geekwire reported that VC funding in the U.S. neared $100bn in 2018, the highest since the dot-com era, with a record 184 deals above $100m (up from 120 in 2017). However, they also reported that deal activity for 2018 reached 5,536 transactions, being the lowest since 2013. Seed stage transactions apparently fell to 25%, down from 36% in 2013, but this is probably a natural consequence of a gradually more mature pool of fast growth potential investee companies. But a decreasing number of seed stage deals doesn't bode well for the maintenance of a healthy pipeline of developing companies that will attract larger and later stage deals for years to come.

Perhaps the message to VCs is "don't forget to persevere in feeding the seed so as to continue forging the gorge"....and all the best for 2019!

-UK achieves more tech exits than any other European country, with IPOs and acquisitions worth $40bn
-Another bumper year for VC investment in UK tech with $7.9bn raised in 2018, ahead of Germany ($4.6bn), France ($4.4bn) and Israel ($3.4bn)
-Europe closes gap on US in terms of sales and IPOs in 2018”