Investment in UK startups has fallen by the largest amount in five years, with annual deal numbers for 2016 decreasing by 18% since 2015. The total amount invested also fell by 12% to £3.6bn.
That’s according to a report by Beauhurst, which has recorded all equity investment into UK startups in 2016.
Toby Austin, CEO and co-founder of Beauhurst, commented: “A year ago we predicted that 2016’s investment numbers would be flat on 2015’s. At the time, we thought that was a pessimistic outlook. It looks like we weren’t pessimistic enough.”
“The Deal” report also discovered crowdfunding suffered an overall decline of 14%, with 301 crowd investments completed in 2016. However, crowdfunding at the growth stage increased by 10%, with 80% of these companies crowdfunding for the first time, showing that this alternative funding route is emerging as a means for scaleups....