How to evolve the British startup sector

This report comes from the British CNBC exchange form this week. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

The British government is satisfied with how the second historic visit to the state of US President Donald Trump was over last week.

In particular, there is a satisfaction at the 150 billion pounds sterling ($ 203 billion) of announced investment decisions, even if some were already known.

While the greatest individual financial commitment came from Blackstone, the giant of investment, the announcements making the largest splashes in the local media were the investments promised by Nvidia and Microsoft to strengthen the artificial intelligence infrastructure of the United Kingdom.

However, less noticed were important commitments to the country’s flourishing technological startups. This is in particular a commitment from Nvidia to invest 2 billion pounds sterling in startups in London, Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester in partnership with established capital companies, including Accel, Air Street Capital, Balderton, Hoxton Ventures and Phoenix Court.

There was also a commitment to palantir to help British defense startups and small and medium -sized enterprises to develop in the American markets.

Such decisions highlight the strength of the UK startups sector and its ability to attract capital. This is reinforced by the latest figures in the access room to the data supplier: total investment in venture capital of the United Kingdom in the first half of 2025 reached $ 8 billion – more than combined funding raised by Germany and France – confirming it as the most popular destination in Europe for start -up investment for the 30th consecutive quarter.

The excitement around the AI ​​conducts this investment, the United Kingdom having created 10 IA unicorns (a startup which has obtained an assessment of more than a billion dollars) in the last three years, including Wayve, the company of autonomous vehicles, in which Nvidia is committed last week to invest $ 500 million additional dollars, having participated for the first time in 2018.

But the traditional basic competence of the United Kingdom, in terms of startups, is not an AI but the fintech. The latest data on the domains suggest that to date, the United Kingdom has created 188 unicorns, third behind the United States and China. The greatest of them – like Revolut, Wise (formerly TransferWise) and Monzo – are in Fintech. Other evidence of the health sector of the FinTech sector of the United Kingdom occurred when, on Monday, the TIDE business and bank management platform reached Unicorn status after a financing cycle of $ 120 million, led by the TPG investing capital group, estimated $ 1.5 billion.

The CEO of TIDE, Oliver Prill, said: “Securing this TPG investment is an important step for the tide and a strong approval of our growth as the main global business management platform serving 1.6 million members worldwide.”

Although a lot of attention is naturally on the fintech, the other large force appreciated by the British start space is in quantum computer science, the area allowing the completion of complex calculations beyond the capacity of traditional computers.

Among the British players in space for having already reached the status of Unicorn are quantnuum, based in Cambridge, supported by JP Morgan Chase, Mitsui and Honeywell, which earlier this month saw its double valuation at 10 billion dollars in a round of funding led by NVVENTURES, the venture capital of NVIDIA. Another is Arqit, based in London, which provides encryption services resistant to quantum, and which became a public in May 2021 via a merger with the Special Acquisition Company for purposes (SPAC) Centricus Acquisition Corp.

However, this space has also recently provided a good example of what many consider the greatest challenge for British startups. Oxford Ionics, a British quantum pioneer whose partners include the German giant of Chip Infineon, agreed to take control by the American rival Ionq in June of this year – the transaction ended last week – valuing it at $ 1.075 billion.

He has relaunched the concerns that the United Kingdom’s desire to give up control of his most promising technological companies will cost him in the long term. Such concerns were also raised after Google was authorized to acquire the startup of the Deepmind in 2013. Ian Hogarth, who now chairs the working group on the AI ​​model of the British government, wrote later: “I find it hard to believe that the United Kingdom would not be better if DeepMind was still an independent company.”

In other words, the United Kingdom is excellent for feeding startups, but less well to help them develop. Consequently, these companies are often willing to sell to foreign buyers, invariably American, who can provide capital, skills, networks and access to larger markets they need to develop.

All this adds to the feeling that, in the words of Stephen Welton, the founder and former CEO of Business Growth Fund, the United Kingdom is an “incubator economy” where tomorrow’s growth champions are born but not preserved.

Questions are also asked about how the United Kingdom encourages technological investments.

A report published last week by useful company, a consortium of FTSE companies, investment companies, business schools and consultants, suggested that, although tax alternatives within the framework of the Investment Program of Seed Business (SEIS) and the Business Investment Regime (EIS) have encouraged many investors in angel and investors to an interior stage – can simply provide shelter – can simply provide shelter – can simply provide shelter Taxed for retail investors). technological companies. He argued that this can also lead to an investment bias in companies at low risk rather than high risk.

It is also feared that even these reliefs may not produce the results they have made.

A group of investors led by the VCT Association, the association of Investment Companies and the British Venture Capital Association published an open letter to the Minister of Finance Rachel Reeves on Monday exhoring it to increase the current life and the annual investment limits for VCT and EIS, which have been frozen for almost a decade, during which inflation has eroded their real value.

But it is possible to open pessimism. While an increasing number of startups remain in private property longer, investors focus more on delivery than on speculative assessments.

And here, British startups deliver. Another concession report published in the last month underlined the European Directorate of the United Kingdom in the two “colts” (companies with revenues between 25 and 100 million dollars) and “Turlebreds” (companies with more than $ 100 million income), as well as unicorns.

This leadership is likely to generate more, no less interest in British startups.

– Ian King

Harry Stebbings, founder of 20VC, calls radical reforms to the World Kingdom’s World Talent Visa to attract the best entrepreneurs and restore London status as a global start-up center.

David Livingstone, customer director at Citi, discusses the bank’s announcement to invest $ 1.5 billion in their British headquarters.

The best American technological companies have announced dozens of billions of investment plans in the United Kingdom as well as President Trump’s state visit.

The 135 billion dollars of blackstone on the United Kingdom lifts the eyebrows. Although it is not clear which specific blackstone companies or projects could add to its portfolio, Mark Preskett of Morningstar Wealth told CNBC that global investors were likely to take note of the major interest of Blackstone in Great Britain.

The AI ​​Nscale startup has come out of nowhere and blows the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang. Two years ago, NSCALE was a whole new startup in the United Kingdom now, it is at the center of action on the hottest market on the planet: artificial intelligence.

The Bank of England holds the stable prices, with a new decrease of 2025 in the balance. The monetary policy committee voted by 7-2 to maintain stable rates at 4%, with two MPC members voted for a decrease of 25 points.

– Katrina Bishop

The 10-year-old checkback yield was around 4.682% Tuesday afternoon, compared to 4.649% a week ago, while new OECD forecasts projected inflation in the United Kingdom to exceed its G7 peers this year.

Sterling dropped 0.9% compared to the dollar in the last week, to exchange approximately $ 1,3519 Tuesday evening, because the UK Flash UK data in September indicated a slowdown in private sector growth in the United Kingdom

– Hugh leask

September 29: Mortgage approvals, net loan data

September 30: Q2 GDP, national housing price

– Katrina Bishop