- Bengaluru & London among top five cities for VC investment in 2021 – with cities firms raising $25.5B and $18.6
- B respectively
- Bengaluru produces 16 new unicorns during 2021, London 20
Global tech VC investment into startups hit a record level of $675B in 2021, doubling the previous all-time high of $340.6B in 2020. The investments in 2021 were led by the US at $328.8B followed by China at $61.8B and India coming in third with a $44.6B funding into the sector. The United Kingdom ranked fourth at $39.8B followed by Germany at $19.9B, according to a latest report conducted jointly by London & Partners and dealroom.co.
Bengaluru made it to the top five leading VC investment hubs across the world accounting for $18.6B of the global pie, following London which attracted $25.5B. The top three city hubs were the Bay Area, New York and the Greater Boston Region, all in the US, the study said.
Hemin Bharucha, Country Director, India, London and Partners said: “The record venture capital investment figures for the UK and India in 2021 demonstrate that tech and innovation are thriving across both regions. With an increasing number of unicorns and exciting tech startups, cities such as London and Bengaluru are now recognized by VCs as some of the best places to find game changing companies to invest in. This is great news for tech businesses across both ecosystems and creates lots of opportunities for collaboration between London and Indian tech hubs – especially in areas of mutual strength such as fintech and Edtech. As well as access to high levels of growth capital, London has the talent, customers and a supportive ecosystem tech companies need to scale and we look forward to helping more Indian businesses expand into London in 2022.”
Last year was a record year for VC investment into India and Bengaluru with the Indian tech VC investment having grown three times between 2020 and 2021. India also jumped ranks from 4th in 2020 to 3rd globally in 2021.
2021 was also a landmark year for London’s tech sector, with a large increase in megarounds ($100m+ rounds), an unprecedented number of exits and more new unicorns than any previous year. The UK capital’s tech firms raised an all-time high of $25.5bn in VC funding, 2.3x investment levels in 2020.
In terms of unicorns produced in 2021, 133 new unicorns came from the Bay Area, 69 from New York, 21 from the Greater Boston Area. London produced more new unicorns than in any previous year at 20 and Bengaluru also had a record year, producing 16 new unicorn companies.
Akshay Chaturvedi, Founder and CEO, Leverage Edu said: “London over the years has established itself as a top hub for talent across multiple domains. For a customer first, tech driven company like ours, it is only natural to establish our biggest international office in London. The quality and diversity of talent here is unmatched. I would like to thank London and Partners for helping us in the start of this amazing journey”
Eileen Burbidge, Partner at London VC firm, Passion Capital added: “London and the rest of the UK’s tech sector continues to go from strength-to-strength and means that the UK is now competing on the global stage. It’s fantastic to see that London tech companies are attracting large volumes of capital across all stages of the funding journey as a sign that our tech ecosystem is truly flourishing and our entrepreneurs are second to none. With high growth sectors such as fintech, climate tech and health tech, we can expect London’s tech companies and those across the UK to attract further attention from global investors in 2022.”
View the full copy of the report – HERE
