Research published today by London & Partners, the Mayor of London’s promotional company, shows that the UK tech sector attracted more investment than any European country in 2016.
Measuring activity across private equity and venture capital deals, more than £6.7 billion was invested into UK tech firms last year, with London accounting for more than a third of the total.
Despite the vote to leave the EU, the UK remains attractive to investors, with UK tech companies attracting more investment and more merger and acquisition (M&A) activity than any other European company since the Brexit vote.
The second half of 2016 also saw a number of the world’s leading technology companies demonstrating their long term commitment to investing in London. Google announced a £1 billion investment plan for a new headquarters in King’s Cross, Facebook opened 500 jobs for London and Apple revealed plans for new headquarters in Battersea. What’s more, as we mentioned yesterday, the company behind Snapchat, Snap Inc, announced this week that it has established its international headquarters in London.
Commenting in the research findings, The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “With our unbeatable blend of talent, creativity and access to finance, it is not surprising that London continues to go from strength to strength as the undisputed tech capital of Europe. Despite the Brexit vote, the capital continues to attract record levels of investment and remains the best place in the world to grow a business. I have no doubt that this important sector of our economy will continue to generate jobs, investment and world-leading technology for decades to come.”
To find out more about how Beavis Morgan’s technology business experts can help you and your tech business, please contact Steve Govey or your usual Beavis Morgan Partner. We are on hand to guide you through each stage of the business lifecycle, from startup, through to growth, maturity and exit, helping you navigate all the challenges, plan effectively for tax, utilise the government’s R&D ‘money back for innovation’ scheme, and make the right decisions now and for the future. Our M&A specialists to the industry have also acted on a significant number of M&A deals and are able to assist in both the buying and selling of businesses.