The climate for early stage investing in the Creative Industries Report
Access the new UKBAA and Creative UK snapshot report on investing in the Creative Industries
UKBAA and Creative UK have been working together since 2019 as part of the BFI Lottery Funded Creative Enterprise programme, which seeks to support the growth of high-potential creative screen businesses. Working together, we have focused on increasing investor awareness of the Creative Industries and highlighting investment opportunities in sub-sectors like High-End TV and Film, AR/VR, Games, Media Tech, Animation, and more.
When we began working together, we surveyed our investment community to understand the appetite for early stage investing in the creative sector. The results from that survey enabled us to design a bespoke rolling programme targeted at increasing investor engagement in the Creative Industries and reducing barriers faced by investors.
Fast forward to 2023, we conducted another survey to gain further insight from the investment community. We’re delighted to share the findings in the form of our new Climate for early stage investing in the Creative Industries report.
The key findings can be summarised as follows:
- Digital media and content and immersive technology were the most attractive sub-sectors within the creative industries and there is a considerable increase in investor interest in gaming compared with our 2019 survey.
- When looking at the types of businesses that investors are interested in, content creators together with enabling technologies and services are identified as offering the most potential for investment where they see the benefits of technology converging with creativity and innovation.
- Over half of the survey respondents have participated in UKBAA and Creative UK-related activities over the past 4 years. Over 50% of these identified a general increased interest and understanding of the sector, demonstrating that investor-focused interventions are pushing the needle.
- Of those not yet prepared to make an investment in the creative industries, a lack of knowledge or experience of the sub-sectors was cited as the biggest factor combined with access to information about the growth and returns of the sector.
Click here to access your copy of the report!
The report also explores what more can be done to support investors backing innovators in the sector and shines the spotlight a curated group of exciting creative technology companies.
We would like to thank all those that contributed to the survey and those that joined us at the events hosted as part of the programme.
This report is a reflection of our community and as such, we encourage you to share it with you network!
