Reflections on the state of the post-Brexit funding market

Since the UK voted to leave the EU, the total number of investment transactions in Europe has in factgrown by over 20% compared to the same period last year, shows GP Bullhound data. That is despite gloomyreports that European tech startups suffered a decline in funding since the EU referendum, raising only 2.1bn euros from venture capital funds in quarter 3 – down a third on the previous quarter – according to Dow Jones VentureSource. A large part of the increase in the overall number of transactions comes from a rise in the amount of smaller investments being made. There has been a significant increase in series A and early seed rounds, together with a significant number of new venture funds having been launched in the UK and Europe, such as Japan’s SoftBank. It is now a matter of deciding where this capital should be deployed.

This optimism was reflected in thecomments at the UKBAA Angel Investment Summit on 1st November, where the general sentiment was very much that it is business as usual and there were confirmations of a continuing supply of capital at the early stage.

For more information on the funding scene post-Brexit, see Madhumita Murgia’s and Lauren Fedor’s feature in the FT.