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Study shows records broken all over the world with The City keeping its place at the top of Europe.

London & Partners issued the results of their study this week showing that venture capitalists broke an all-time record in global investment in technology startups last year.

The report, compiled by London & Partners and Dealroom.co, shows that 2021 was another record year for venture capital investment into London’s tech firms. Firstly, there was a large increase in megarounds – meaning deals worth $100 million or more. There was also an “unprecedented” number of exits and more new unicorns than any previous year, the report shows.

The UK capital’s tech firms raised an all-time high of $25.5bn in VC funding, 2.3x investment levels in 2020. This is against a backdrop of record global ($675bn) and European ($115bn) VC investment.

Growth despite Brexit and COVID

Despite the challenges posed by Brexit and coronavirus, the strong performance and rapid growth of London’s tech sector in 2021 suggests the city is competing strongly on the world stage. Indeed, London ranked fourth globally for VC investment in 2021, behind the Bay Area ($100.9bn), New York ($47.5bn) and Greater Boston ($29.9bn).

Berlin was the only other European city to make it into the top ten list with $11bn in tech VC investment.

On a national level, the UK ranked fourth globally following another record year of funding ($39.8bn), behind the United States ($328.8), China ($61.8bn) and India ($44.6bn).

Laura Citron, CEO at London & Partners, commented on the findings. “London is now a truly mature global technology capital,” she said. “We have big pools of later stage funding, nearly two new unicorn companies every month, and massive funding rounds and exits. This data shows that London is not only a brilliant place for entrepreneurs to start businesses, but also to grow them to a global scale.,” she added.

“London has it all – capital, talent, customers, a supportive ecosystem and a fantastic place to live.”