• A record £3.8 billion invested in fast-growth UK businesses in Q4 2020
• UK retains its world-leading position with six of the top ten deals in Europe
• More than £ 11.7 billion invested in UK scaleups throughout 2020

Fast-growth UK businesses closed 2020 in their strongest position, attracting more than £3.8 billion of Venture Capital (VC) investment during the final quarter of the year, according to new figures out today.

Despite further COVID-19 related restrictions being in place, Q4 was the strongest quarter of the year for VC-backed deals, according to KPMG’s Global Venture Pulse Survey. The £3.8bn raised was a 65% increase on the £2.3billion raised in Q3, although the volume of deals was significantly down. 343 deals were done from October through to December, with deal volume falling quarter-on-quarter throughout the year.   

Nevertheless, the report found that 2020 saw record investment with more than £11.7bn of venture capital invested into UK scaleup businesses across 1849 deals. 

The UK was the jewel in the European VC investment crown, with six of Q4’s 10 largest European deals involving UK scaleups - including digital health business LumiraDx (£285m), Financial software company Molo (£252million) and Bristol based Graphcore (£163million).

The capital continued to be the main destination for investment coming into the UK, with four of the top European rounds seen in Q4 2020 invested in London-based companies. This includes Cazoo (£228million) and OneTrust (£220million). The average investment value for a London scaleup rose over 176% in the final quarter of 2020 to £3.6 million.

Commenting on the findings, Bina Mehta, Head of KPMG’s Emerging Giants practice, said:

‘The UK’s ability to produce successful, innovative businesses with strong management teams has yet again shone through against the most challenging economic backdrop.  Late stage deals continued to drive activity accounting for over a third of the deals as investors raised their appetite for scaling businesses, against the backdrop of a global pandemic.

 

“Unsurprisingly, however, given the economic headwinds, investors dialled back early-stage activity. This could hamper the UK’s ability to nurture those fast growth businesses in the future.

 

‘’As the pandemic caused a shift in consumer behaviour, there were big gains for innovative businesses operating in the IT, healthcare and consumer products and services (B2C) sectors. As the global pandemic continues, we expect VC investors to continue to focus on healthcare, biotech and consumer businesses, which is good news for the UK given our world- leading reputation in these fields.’’

UK contributes to record VC investment across Europe

Europe beat its previous annual high of £30.7billion (2019), attracting £35.9bn in VC investment in 2020. The last 12 months saw European and foreign investors willing to fund the best prospects with significant sums resulting in record amounts of annual VC funding for scaleup businesses in the UK

(£11.7billion), Germany (£5.2billion), France (£4.6 billion), the Nordic regions (£4.2 billion), and Israel (£3.7billion) in 2020.

The resilience of the late-stage European ecosystem saw £10.5bn raised in the final quarter of the year across 1,192 deals.  Germany had its strongest quarter on record as mega-deals came back to close out the year including the £182m funding of Berlin’s TIER mobility, It was also a strong year for France as a bevy of companies matured and continued to benefit from large late-stage rounds, as evidenced by Ynsect’s £272million+ round.

Global VC investment finishes strong in 2020 

Early in 2020, the volume of VC investment into global scaleups contracted due to the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic, with early stage funding being hit the hardest.  Whilst the first half of 2020 saw a steep decline in the volume and value of VC investment into global scaleups, VC invested remained near all-time records in the back half of 2020 as economic conditions became more clear.

Almost £60bn was invested into global scaleups during the final quarter of 2020 across 5418 deals.  Thanks to blockbuster M&A and huge debuts on public exchanges, multiple venture firms and other backers saw mature companies such as Airbnb and DoorDash finally go public to achieve multibillion-dollar valuations. Much like parts of 2018 and the first half of 2019, the back half of 2020 saw the culmination of several unicorns’ journeys as independent or privately held entities, which spurred this massive surge in liquidity. Corporate investors and their CVC arms also remained active. This is unlikely to change heading into 2021.

Bina Mehta concluded:

 ‘’The venture capital market has not been immune to the impacts of  COVID-19 and with economic challenges expected to continue for at least the first half of 2021, VC investors will continue to assess how consumer behaviours are changing, which could affect the viability of different products, services, and business models in the future. With venture fundraises continuing at a pace we expect the coming year to be a positive year for growing and scaling businesses

‘’Looking ahead, big bets will continue to revolve around healthtech, biotech, fintech and B2B solutions. Cybersecurity and data analytics are also expected to see additional VC investment, due in part to the rapid increase in remote working.

‘’With Brexit now concluded and a world-leading vaccine roll out across the UK, we expect strong investment levels, especially for those that have demonstrated robust and resilient business models through the crisis.  Management teams who can show they were able to grow and adapt over the last few months will be in a strong position when it comes to fundraising in 2021.’’

 

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Emma Murray

KPMG Press Office

020 7694 6506    emma.murray@kpmg.co.uk

About KPMG in the UK

KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership, operates from 21 offices across the UK with approximately 17,600 partners and staff.  The UK firm recorded a revenue of £2.40 billion in the year ended 30 September 2019.

KPMG is a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. It operates in 147 countries and territories and has more than 219,000 people working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients.

KPMG uses PitchBook as the provider of venture data for the Venture Pulse report.

Figures supplied are a snapshot of deals data available as of 18^th December 2020.. The Venture Pulse does not contain any transactions that are tracked as private equity growth by PitchBook. As such rounds are often conflated with late-stage venture capital in media coverage, there can be confusion regarding specific rounds of financing. The key difference is that PitchBook defines a PE growth round as a financial investment occurring when a PE investor acquires a minority stake in a privately held corporation. Thus, if the investor is classified as PE by PitchBook, and it is the sole participant in the recipient company’s financing, then such a round will usually be classified as PE growth, and not included in the Venture Pulse datasets.

Also, if a company is tagged with any PitchBook vertical, excepting manufacturing and infrastructure, it is kept. Otherwise, the following industries are excluded from growth equity financing calculations: buildings and property, thrifts and mortgage finance, real estate investment trusts, and oil & gas equipment, utilities, exploration, production and refining. Lastly, the company in question must not have had an M&A event, buyout, or IPO completed prior to the round in question.