
Over the last six months, VC investment in London has been driven by the FinTech sector, with firms like Funding Circle, Azimo, WorldRemit and Currency Cloud raising $472m (?302.56m) ? equivalent to 40 per cent of the total amount raised in London.
In April, Funding Circle raised $150m (?96.17m). Samir Desai, CEO and co-founder of Funding Circle said: ?London continues to be a fantastic place to grow a financial technology company. In just five years, the Funding Circle marketplace has become the fifth largest net lender to small businesses. The money we raised in April will allow us to go on to create a sustainable, category-defining business in a multi-billion dollar global market.? The figures, which had been compiled by London & Partners at the beginning of July, showed that VC investment into UK tech firms during the first six months of 2015 eclipsed the same period in 2014. The data comes after research from GP Bullhound, which was released at London Technology Week 2015, revealed that Britain had 17 tech unicorns ? 13 of which were in the capital. Eileen Burbidge, partner at Passion Capital and the Mayor of London?s tech ambassador for the city, said: ?Last year it took London tech firms nine months to reach the billion dollar mark, this year they?ve done it in six months. The city has become such a tech powerhouse because it excels over other tech hubs around the world. London combines the technology and digital innovation of Silicon Valley with the Wall Street financing heritage of New York and the policy making of Washington DC ? all in one phenomenal city.? Read more on venture capital:- The European VC investment trends that took place in Q1 2015
- A look at the most active UK equity investors in the seed, venture and growth space during 2014
- North East holds its own in number of private equity and venture capital-backed businesses
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