Venture capital fundraising up in 2024
New data reveals that the British venture capital industry almost doubled the amount of funds raised in 2024 compared to the previous year.
The findings, from the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association’s (BVCA) upcoming Venture capital in the UK 2025, show that venture capital funds managed from the UK had a robust year in 2024 with the total amount raised reaching £4bn – compared to £2.3bn in 2023, returning to levels seen in 2022. This was supported by the strong fundraising performance of several large UK based managers.
Additionally, 2024 saw a rise in the number of venture funds raising capital from 44 in 2023 to 48 in 2024, demonstrating continued investor confidence in the asset class.
The UK remained the top source for venture capital funding in 2024, comprising of 25% of the total value raised. The UK is the leading source in part because it includes significant commitments made by government agencies such as the British Business Bank. Notably North America was the second most popular source for fundraising, representing 12.6% of the total raised in 2024, up from 2.6% in 2023.
UK pension fund investment showed little progress in 2024
Pension fund commitments to venture capital represented 7.8% of funds raised in 2024 compared to 7.3% in 2023. The vast majority of pension fund investment into venture capital funds was committed by overseas schemes. The BVCA identified significant commitments to venture capital by US pension funds, however data collected does not show any commitments from UK pension funds.
In 2023, as part of the Mansion House Compact 11 of the UK’s largest DC pension providers agreed to invest 5% of their default funds under management to unlisted equities by 2030. There have been recent reports of progress from UK DC schemes taking steps to diversify default funds and to invest in private markets including venture and growth capital, with the launch of Long Term Asset Funds, and notable positive commitments.
A recent survey of Investment Compact for Venture Capital & Growth Equity signatories found that 34% expect investment from Mansion House signatories in 2025, but overall, evidence of substantive investments remains limited.
The case for investing in UK venture capital is strong, according to BVCA analysis which shows that while there is a wide range of returns for venture capital, the ten-year horizon internal rate of return for VC was 11% per annum for the ten years to 31 Dec 2023. This compares to 5.3% per year achieved by the FTSE All Share index and 7.5% achieved MSCI Europe index in the same period.
The BVCA is calling for Government policy to focus on ensuring UK pension funds have sufficient scale to develop the expertise required to invest in venture capital that backs scale-ups seeking access to capital.
Michael Moore, BVCA Chief Executive said:
“UK venture capital plays a pivotal role in supporting our economy, helping to scale some of the Britain’s most ambitious businesses. It’s good to see robust fundraising activity in 2024 both in terms of the sums raised and the total number of funds, despite a challenging environment.
“However, it is imperative to unlock greater levels of pension fund investment in venture capital. The Government’s focus on building scale through the consolidation of DC schemes and pooling of Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) to create ‘megafunds’ is a very positive development, so long as it gets the details of implementation right.”
Media Contacts
James Gribben, BVCA: [email protected]
Notes to Editors
Fundraising data sources
The BVCA collects data from members on an annual basis covering fundraising, investments and divestments in each calendar year. All BVCA members who hold General Partner membership and are primarily based in the UK are required to complete the investment activity survey. To be included in the current year survey, a firm had to be a full GP member of the BVCA as at 1 January 2025. In 2022, the BVCA took the decision to widen the scope of captured activity to monitor wider market trends more accurately. The activity dataset now includes the following categories of data:
- Activity data provided by private equity and venture capital BVCA member firms.
- Activity data provided by non-member private equity and venture capital firms to other national associations that are part of the European Data Cooperative (‘EDC’).
- Activity data of private equity and venture capital firms that was obtained from publicly available sources.
The BVCA together with other national associations have supplemented data provided by members and used estimates where appropriate.
Data on the returns generated by venture capital was first published in the BVCA Performance Measurement Survey 2023, July 2024.
Over 100 venture capital and growth equity firms are now signatories to the Investment Compact, demonstrating the commitment from the private capital industry to this agenda. As part of the BVCA’s commitments, it surveyed Investment Compact signatory survey in March 2025, the findings of which are included in the Pensions and Private Capital Expert Panel Final Report.
About the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association
The British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) is the industry body and public policy advocate for the private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) (private capital) industry in the UK. With a membership of over 600 firms, we represent the vast majority of all UK-based private capital firms, as well as their professional advisers and a large base of UK and global investors. The private equity and venture capital industry has a vital role to play in driving national and regional growth. Currently over 12,000 companies, employing more than 2.2 million people, are backed by private equity and venture capital investment in the UK.
