31 May 2017

UK angel and VC investment supports £15bn GDP and 200,000 jobs

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  • 24,400 businesses backed by venture capital and angel investors in the UK
  • Combined turnover of almost £30bn
  • 1.5x more productive per employee than private sector average
  • Lack of funding for scale-ups

Venture capital and business angel investment supports £15 billion of GDP and over 200,000 UK jobs according to a new report published the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA).

The research - conducted by Oxford Economics – examines the impact of venture capital and business angels on the UK economy. It provides some very important numbers, especially for any Government looking to improve the start-up and scale-up environment.

Part of the BVCA’s Innovation Nation initiative to celebrate and promote the UK as the leading destination for early-stage businesses, the report estimates there were 24,400 businesses backed by venture capital and angel investors in 2015, with a combined turnover of £29.2 billion. To put this into perspective, this is a figure higher than that of the UK hotels and holiday accommodation sector.

The impact is even greater when looking at the wider economy, where the contribution to GDP almost doubles to just under £30 billion and employment reaching more than 480,000 people once indirect (i.e. supply chain) and induced (employee spending) is taken into account.

A business using angel or venture capital investment is also more than 1.5x more productive than other companies: £73,700 per employee for VC/angel-backed companies compared to £47,500 for the private sector.

Crucially for the Government, over 90% of the companies using VC or angel investment are small businesses with less than 49 employees. Whilst this demonstrates the importance of investment at the early-stage, it clearly shows there is a significant need for investment for larger companies looking to scale-up rapidly. Less than 8% of companies with 50 employees or more have angel and/or VC backing.

In our recent submission to the Government’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper, we highlighted the need for more investment as a company matures and grows, an area where we currently lag behind many other nations in the world. According to the OECD, the UK ranks third for start-ups but just 13th for scale-ups.


For further information please contact

[email protected]


Notes to editors
  1. Innovation Nation can be found here.

  2. The full report by Oxford Economics can be found here.

  3. The British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) is the industry body for the UK private equity and venture capital industry. The BVCA has over 600 member firms, representing the vast majority of UK-based private equity and venture capital firms and their advisers.




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