Latest investment figures from London & Partners reveal a slowdown in London’s VC rounds compared to the start of the year, but the city has now smashed the total raised in the entire of 2014.
Some $491m was raised in London in Q3 2015, compared to $427m in Q2, and a record $682m in the first quarter of the year.
Ecommerce funding rounds make up half of this quarter’s total, with an impressive $70m for Deliveroo, $60m each for MADE.com and Secret Escapes, along with the alternative student loans company Prodigy Finance bagging $19.5m.
But these pale somewhat to Q1’s $100m for WorldRemit, $86m for FarFetch and $58m for TransferWise.
Overall, a total of $1.6bn has been raised from VCs in London this year, eclipsing the $1.3bn seen in 2014.
Eileen Burbidge, partner at Passion Capital and the Mayor of London’s tech ambassador for the city, said: “In little more than five years we have seen investment in London’s tech sector increase tenfold.
“Even more importantly, we are now starting to see more later-stage investments which support the scaling of more London tech businesses.
“Today’s figures and the fact that London is home to more software developers than anywhere else in the world validate the fact that London’s tech sector is maturing and is one of the world’s leading tech hubs.”