UK accounts for 30% of European SaaS deals – report

The UK software as a service (SaaS) market has seen the most mergers and acquisition transactions (28.6%) across Europe in 2022, according to fresh data.

A report by GP Bullhound found that the UK, France and Germany were responsible for 58.9% of European SaaS deals for the past year.

Over a quarter (30.4%) of all European SaaS deals (1,834) in 2022 came from the UK, followed by Germany (12.7%) and France (11.9%).

“Given the macroeconomic headwinds that have significantly impacted public market SaaS valuations, there is an increasing focus on capital efficient growth for both public and private companies,” said Alexis Scorer, partner, GP Bullhound.

Out of all European countries, the UK was revealed to have raised 23.3% of the €18.1bn (£15.6bn) raised by SaaS firms.

Noteworthy 2022 SaaS funding rounds were Manchester customer engagement platform Connex One’s £93m raise, remote work platform Omnipresent’s £90.7m Series B, and Fintech Modulr’s £83m round.

Scorer continued: “There are reasons to be optimistic about the outlook for European SaaS, and our survey indicates strong levels of resilience amongst a significant proportion of European software companies.’

More than a third (33%) of SaaS CEOs in Europe said they intend on raising more funding in the next year. The last year saw 72 SaaS unicorns birthed around Europe, up from 50 the year before.