Venture capital on the rise at Mids start-ups ‘thrive’

Tim Kay

Venture Capital (VC) investment in the Midlands gained strength in the second quarter of 2018, as a total of £5.8m of VC was invested in regional businesses across five deals, according to Venture Pulse Q2 2018, a quarterly report on global trends published by KPMG Enterprise.

Tim Kay, director at KPMG in the Midlands, said: “The start-up scene across the Midlands is thriving, fuelled by an increasing variety of co-working spaces, accelerators and support programmes. Bruntwood’s investment in science park ‘Innovation Birmingham’ which supports emerging tech companies that have already raised more than £18m in equity finance, heralds an era of major expansion. In addition, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) is looking to make the region home to GovTech through its UrbanChallenge aimed at using technology to tackle social issues and to help improve public services.

“Capital is also increasingly flowing, tracking at about £1m per week of equity funding this year in the Midlands. This will only accelerate with the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, which was launched earlier this year, coming fully on stream.”

The UK accounted for six of the top ten European deals done in the last three months, including Revolut (£188m), Freeline Therapeutics (£90m), CMR Surgical (£75m), Liberis (£61m), Culture Trip (£60m), and Crescendo Biologics (£53m).

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