Sky-rocketing interest rates, the unexpected demise of Silicon Valley Bank and wider economic uncertainty have created a challenging environment for UK tech entrepreneurs seeking to secure funding. Understandably, investors have grown ever more cautious – venture capital funding has dropped by more than 50% over the last twelve months.
Against this backdrop, last Friday’s TLA & GTA Investor Showcase brought together Europe’s leading investors at the Here East innovation campus in London to discuss how the UK tech community can not only face these issues head-on, but emerge from the global downturn with renewed strength and purpose.
Thriving in times of turmoil
The current funding squeeze is not the first time that UK tech has had to navigate choppy waters. Many experts at the Investor Showcase, including Eric Collins, CEO of Impact X, and Molten Venture’s Bindi Karia, vividly remembered the shockwaves sent through the tech community by the bursting of the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s, or the 2008 financial crisis....