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In 2025, VC general partners, alongside corporates and other financial investors, invested £8 billion into UK venture-stage businesses. This flow of capital plays a critical role in translating innovation into commercial success, ensuring that new ideas generate jobs, skills and economic growth across the country.

Venture Capital in the UK 2026 shows in total, £8bn was invested into UK venture-backed businesses in 2025 by VC firms alongside others, with deeptech and AI companies receiving £5bn of the total transaction value.

UK Private Capital has found that, despite commitments from UK defined contribution (DC) pension funds to increase allocations into venture capital and growth equity, there is limited evidence of any significant investment into the asset class – with firms describing it as difficult to engage with pension funds.

Chris Elphick provides his reflections on VC fundraising data in 2025 and the decline in the UK total overall. He highlights that this is a narrow snapshot, drawing attention to the strengths of the ecosystem including how the UK continues to lead Europe in total VC investment, the strong track record of exits and returns, and the UK’s strengths in important and emerging sectors including AI, health tech and life sciences.

Belasko’s Head of Funds, Nick McHardy, looks at the practical steps involved in launching and operating a private capital fund. This piece reflects on foundational aspects such as fundraising, documentation, fund structuring as well as service provider selection – giving a useful guide on operational aspects and fund lifecycle management.

BVCA Senior Venture Capital Executive, Baderin Tejuoso, reflects on Slush 2025, one of the most influential conferences in the European venture capital calendar.

Leandros Kalisperas, Chief Investment Officer at British Business Bank writes about how the Bank is championing diversity within the VC industry and how up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as men.

Dan Perkins, Founder Liquidity Fund, sets out the case for rethinking founder liquidity at Series A. As the UK startup ecosystem matures, he argues that enabling modest early liquidity is not a risk to ambition, but a tool to sustain it - offering founders the stability to focus, scale, and build for the long term.

Co-authored by Mei Lim, CFO, and Sonia Powar, Venture Partner at Anthemis, who put forward the argument that despite the sectors rapid growth in the US, the UK venture debt market is still currently restrained by a series of barriers to investment.

New research by the BVCA – finds that the venture capital industry played a bigger role in the UK economy in 2024, increasing both investment and fundraising activity compared to 2023.

UK Private Capital’s ‘Venture capital in the UK’ 2025 report sets out the latest research on the scale of venture capital investment across the nations and regions of the UK. It found that the VC industry played a bigger role in the UK economy in 2024, increasing both investment and fundraising activity compared to 2023.

New data reveals that the British venture capital industry almost doubled the amount of funds raised in 2024 compared to the previous year.

The UK venture capital landscape in 2025 is poised for significant growth, building on its position as the third-largest VC market globally and the clear leader in Europe.

UK Private Capital's report, Venture Capital in the UK, sets out the scale of investment in VC sector in nations and regions across the UK. It also addresses what is needed from pension investment reform and the scale-up funding ecosystem in order to unlock the capital that can help drive businesses and growth in the UK.

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.