Venture capital investors sank billions of pounds into smaller unlisted technology-based businesses in the UK in the first quarter.
Investment into the smaller business sector, including by the taxpayer-funded British Business Bank, rose to a record £7.6bn even as valuations of listed tech businesses were diving.
The impressive quarter came after a record 2021, with the overall sector attracting £18.1bn, up by 88% on 2020 and 121% higher than the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
The figures, from the state-owned British Business Bank, identified very large increases into some tech sectors, with new investment into life sciences rising from £800m in 2020 to £1.7bn in 2021 and into software companies, up from £2.3bn to £4.8bn.
