London Still Remains The Investor’s Destination Of Choice in Q1, 2018

The first quarter of this year has seen healthy, although slight cooling off of VC activity with just over $1billion was invested in UK startups in the first three months of the year; this is following a big year of more than $8billion invested in UK startups in 2017.

Despite the trend in the number of deals in the UK continuing to drop, investors are seem focused on making a smaller number of later stage deals. This plays considerably to the UK’s strengths with a much more mature startup sector than is seen in other European cities where startup hubs are still emerging.

Fintech remains a key focus for VCs, with Social Trading and Investing Network eToro raising $100 million in order to fuel growth. Early fintech companies such as Funding Circle are considering exits – which could make the remainder of 2018 exciting for this segment of the market. As the UK startup ecosystem has matured, a lot of later stage startups have shifted their focus from growth to profitability, particularly in the fintech space.

Now we are seeing some fintechs succeeding - they are delivering on profitability objectives and positioning themselves for potential exit over the next one or two years.

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