The UK witnessed significant slowdown in venture capital (VC) funding activity during the first month of 2023. A total of 90 VC funding deals were announced in the UK during January 2023 while the disclosed funding value of these deals stood at $925 million, according to GlobalData a leading data and analytics company,

This is a massive decline when compared to the previous month as well as January 2022. An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that VC deal volume for the UK declined by 11.8% and 41.2% in January 2023 compared to the previous month and January 2022, respectively. Meanwhile, the month-on-month and Year-on-Year decline in value terms stood at 27.4% and 76.3%, respectively.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Macroeconomic challenges and recession fears seem to have been taking a toll on investor sentiments across several key markets globally. The UK, which is among the top five markets for VC funding, is not an exception to this global trend. These factors have pulled down the overall VC funding value below $1 billion during the month.”

However, despite unfavorable conditions, some of the UK-based startups managed to attract big-ticket investments during the month. Some of the high-value VC deals announced in the UK in January 2023 include $140 million raised by Oxbotica and $136 million raised by Raylo Group.

Note: Historic data may change in case some deals get added to previous months because of a delay in disclosure of information in the public domain.