The UK’s startups have overseen the announcement of a total 497 venture capital (VC) deals in the first five months of 2024, new figures published by GlobalData have shown.

The disclosed funding value of these deals stands at $6.8bn (£5.4bn).

Analysis of GlobalData’s Deals Database revealed that this represents a 1.6% year-on-year (YoY) growth in VC funding value during January-May 2024, despite the deal volume registering a YoY decline of 17.3%.

The analytics firm’s figures revealed that that a total of 601 VC deals were announced during January-May 2023, by comparison, with the disclosed funding value of these deals standing at $6.7bn.

Lead analyst at GlobalData, Aurojyoti Bose, commented: “The decline experienced in deal volume in the UK during January-May 2024 was in line with the global trend, wherein top markets such as the US and China also witnessed a fall in the number of deals.

“Meanwhile, the improvement in terms of value recorded during the first five months of 2024 could be attributed to the announcement of two billion-dollar deals (valued more than or equal to $1bn) in May.”

Some of the notable VC funding deals announced in the UK so far this year included around $1bn (£791.2m) worth of funding secured by Wayve, $1bn (£791.2m) capital raising by Abound, $431m (£341m) worth of funding raised by Monzo, $112m (£88.6m) capital raising by Exohood Labs, $110m (£87m) funding secured by Skyports, and $110m (£87m) capital raising by Build A Rocket Boy, among others.

Bose added: “The UK stands as the top European market for VC funding activity and was also among the top five markets globally both in terms of VC deals volume and value during January-May 2024.”

The UK accounted for a 7.2% share of the total number of VC deals announced globally during the first five months of 2024, the figures showed, while its share of the corresponding disclosed funding value stood at 6.5%.

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