The UK’s Tech industry continued to garner significant investment, as Q1’15 marked a 17-quarter high for both total funding and deals. Specifically, UK-based VC-backed Tech companies raised $781M on 69 deals, up 111% and 28% respectively versus the same quarter a year prior. The funding boom was buoyed by international payments companies WorldRemit and Transferwise, as well as data center company Verne Global.
UK gets three new Unicorns in Q1’15
London dominated all cities both in deals and dollars, accounting for 86% of all funding and 70% of all deals to VC-backed UK tech companies. The UK also saw three new Tech companies join the $1B+ valuation club, as FarFetch’s $86M Series E, TransferWise’s $58M Series C, and Shazam’s $30M Series F valued each company at $1B.
| Cities | Deals | Dollars ($M) |
|
Company | Amount ($M) | Round |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 48 | 672.03 | WorldRemit | 100 | Series B | |
| Berkshire | 2 | 3 | Verne Global | 98 | Series D | |
| Essex | 2 | 12.77 | FarFetch | 86 | Series E | |
| TransferWise | 58 | Series C | ||||
| Blippar | 45 | Series A |
Accel Partners & Index Ventures are most active UK VCs
Accel Partners and Index Ventures were the most active VCs in UK Tech in Q1’15. Both invested in Deliveroo, one of Europe’s hottest Tech companies, which raised a $25M Series B, while Accel’s largest deal was WorldRemit’s $100M Series B.
| Rank | Investor | Rank | Investor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Accel Partners | 7 | Eden Ventures |
| 1 | Index Ventures | 7 | MMC Ventures |
| 3 | Passion Capital | 7 | Episode 1 Partners |
| 3 | Octopus Ventures | 7 | Notion Capital |
| 3 | Balderton Capital | 7 | Sussex Place Ventures |
| 3 | Forward Partners | 7 | Amadeus Capital Partners |
| 7 | Andreessen Horowitz | 7 | Holtzbrinck Ventures |
| 7 | North West Fund for VC | 7 | Business Growth Fund |
| 7 | Canaan Partners | 7 | Hoxton Ventures |
| 7 | Playfair Capital | 7 | 83North |
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