Funding the Future – How private capital and pensions can create growth in the UK economy
The venture capital and growth equity industry plays a key role in realising the Government’s ambition to make the UK the best place to start and grow a business. It supports over 8,000 businesses and employs 315,000 people. It makes a vital contribution to the development of new businesses that can help tackle some of the most complex national and global challenges. Activity funded by venture capital and growth funds ranges from finding solutions to climate change, to the development of new medicines for use in the NHS, to tackling dementia or diabetes, to the creation of semi-conductors.
The UK is clearly an attractive and competitive environment for businesses to start and grow. In 2022, the UK Government highlighted that the UK has more venture capital investment than its European peers, and more high-growth companies, having created 144 unicorns and 85,000 startups and scale-ups.
Despite the success of this industry and the strong returns it has delivered, accessing capital is a recurring challenge for companies that wish to continue their growth and development in the UK. UK companies continue to face significant challenges in accessing the funding needed to grow. Without investment flowing in to help growing businesses to succeed, we will not boost growth and create the jobs of the future and businesses will look elsewhere for funding.
