The UK startup ecosystem has faced a challenging 2024, with venture capital dealmaking on track for its lowest annual total since pre-pandemic years. By the end of Q3, £10.9 billion had been invested across 1,879 deals, marking a significant slowdown from 2023’s £15.5 billion, claims PitchBook. Despite this, the UK remains Europe’s largest VC ecosystem, outpacing Germany and France.
The second quarter provided a silver lining, delivering the year’s highest deal value with £5.6 billion raised. While overall deal activity has declined, key sectors such as generative AI, sustainable energy, and fintech continue to attract substantial investments. VC fundraising has also shown resilience, with funds raised to surpass last year’s total despite a declining number of fund launches.
Here’s a closer look at UK startups that secured over $100 million in 2024, showcasing the country’s ability to innovate even in challenging conditions.
Wayve – $1B
Founder/s: Alex Kendall, Amar Shah
Founded year: 2017
Total funding: $1.3B
Wayve develops the next generation of AI-powered self-driving vehicles. The company was the first to develop and test an end-to-end (e2e) AI autonomous driving system on public roads. With mapless end-to-end AI technology, automated vehicles will operate without geofenced limits. According to the company, Wayve-powered self-driving cars will be available on the Uber network in multiple markets around the world, bringing Wayve’s leading technology to Uber’s 150 million monthly global users.
In May, the company raised over $1 billion in Series C funding, marking a record investment in a UK AI company. The investment came from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank along with NVIDIA and Microsoft. Following this, Uber announced a strategic investment of an undisclosed amount in August.
With the additional funding, Wayve intends to accelerate its work with global OEMs to enhance consumer vehicles with Level 2+ advanced driver assistance and Level 3 automated driving capabilities, while also working towards the development of globally scalable Level 4 autonomous vehicles for future deployment on Uber.
Abound – £800M
Founder/s: Michelle He, Gerald Chappell
Founded year: 2020
Total funding: £1.3B
Credit technology firm Abound uses open banking and AI to provide borrowers with loans that are more affordable than those offered by traditional lenders. Its AI-powered platform, Render, analyses customer bank transaction data to determine how much borrowers can afford to repay. Abound underwrites personal loans without the use of credit scores. Instead, it sifts through bank transactions and uses artificial intelligence to create risk profiles for each customer. As a result, it can offer customers a lower interest rate than conventional loan lenders.
In 2024, Abound secured £800 million in debt and equity in a new funding round. The round includes a multi-year asset-backed debt financing arrangement from Citi, backed by loan originations. In addition, the Series B equity round was led by GSR Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based firm. Abound will use the funds to expand into prime lending in the UK, and to roll out Render, its proprietary AI credit technology platform, globally.
Bicycle Therapeutics – $555M
Founder/s: Christian Heinis, Gregory Winter
Founded year: 2008
Total funding: NA
Bicycle Therapeutics is a pharmaceutical company pioneering a new and differentiated class of therapeutics based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide technology. The company focuses on developing precision-guided therapeutics capable of penetrating deep into tissues to target intractable cancers and other serious diseases. The company is advancing a pipeline of candidates designed to deliver agents into solid tumors with precision, aiming to develop transformative medicines for diseases with high therapeutic needs.
A few months back, Bicycle Therapeutics landed $555 million from Forbion Capital Partners, RA Capital Management, Perceptive Advisors, EcoR1 Capital, Fairmount Funds Management, and Deep Track Capital to advance its oncology pipeline. The funding will accelerate clinical trials and expand its precision medicines portfolio.
Monzo – $430M
Founder/s: Tom Blomfield, Paul Rippon, Gary Dolman, Jonas Huckestein, Jason Bates
Founded year: 2015
Total funding: $1.9B
Digital bank Monzo was initially launched as a prepaid card that lets customers open an account for free online, receive spending notifications in real-time, and manage their finances. The London fintech has grown into a full-fledged platform offering social features, premium accounts with additional perks and tools, virtual account creation and management tools, money management features, and more. They offer a mobile-centric current account with a focus on transparency and user-friendliness. They provide features like fee-free foreign usage, real-time spending notifications, budgeting tools, and instant access savings pots.
Earlier this year, Monzo landed $430 million in funding led by CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund that has backed companies, including Stripe and Airbnb. It also saw participation from global tech investors, including GV (Google Ventures) and HSG (HongShan Capital), and existing backers – Passion Capital and Tencent.
The new capital will be used to accelerate Monzo’s expansion plans and launch a range of new products. The funding will further fuel a rich product roadmap as the business continues to make strides in its ambition to build the one app customers turn to to manage their entire financial lives.
Lighthouse – $370M
Founder/s: Gino Engels, Matthias Geeroms
Founded year: 2012
Total funding: $470M
Lighthouse is a commercial platform for the travel and hospitality industry. It transforms complexity into confidence by providing actionable market insights, business intelligence, and pricing tools that maximise revenue growth. Trusted by over 70,000 hotels in 185 countries, and supported by more than 700 employees, Lighthouse provides real-time hotel and short-term rental data in a single platform. By offering accurate, real-time data and simplifying complex information, the company empowers hotels to enhance their revenue strategies and overall performance in the competitive hospitality market.
In November last year, Lighthouse raised $370 million in Series C funding turning the AI-powered hotel software provider into a unicorn. It was led by global investment firm KKR through its Next Generation Technology III Fund. Existing backers, including Spectrum Equity, F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, and Highgate Technology Ventures, also participated. The funding round was led by global investment firm KKR (known for its investment in Semperis, Byju’s, and more) through its Next Generation Technology III Fund. Existing backers, including Spectrum Equity, F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, and Highgate Technology Ventures, also participated.
The company will use this investment for next-generation data and AI capabilities that will give customers access to tools that deliver real business impact. It will be able to expand its team, offering new opportunities for growth, acquisitions, and professional development.
Highview Power – £300 million
Founder/s: Colin Roy, Richard Butland, Toby Peters
Founded year: 2005
Total funding: $543M
Highview Power develops long-duration energy storage solutions specialising in a technology called Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES). LAES works by capturing excess renewable energy, like solar or wind power, by converting it to cool air and storing it in liquid form at very low temperatures. When energy is needed, the liquid air is then heated back up, generating electricity through a turbine. This method offers a clean and efficient way to store large amounts of renewable energy for extended periods, addressing the challenge of intermittency in renewable energy sources.
In June, Highview Power secured a £300 million investment from the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) and British multinational energy and services company Centrica. It will be used to construct one of the world’s largest LAES facilities in Carrington, Manchester. With this round, the company will address the energy storage challenges and position the company as a key player in the transition towards a more sustainable energy future.
Quantinuum – $300M
Founder/s: Ilyas Khan
Founded year: 2021
Total funding: $647M
Cambridge-based Quantinuum, a quantum computing company advances quantum computers and advanced software solutions, driving breakthroughs in materials discovery, cybersecurity, and next-gen quantum AI. It helps organisations explore how to engineer and scale quantum capabilities to help solve some of the world’s most challenging problems, from designing and manufacturing hydrogen cell batteries for transportation to developing materials to sequester carbon safely from the atmosphere to support the world’s energy transition.
The quantum computing company closed $300 million in funding in January this year. JPMorgan Chase led the investment alongside participation from Honeywell, Tokyo-based industrial giant Mitsui & Co., and biotechnology company Amgen. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the path towards achieving universal fault-tolerant quantum computers, while also extending its software offering to enhance commercial applicability.
Flo Health – $200M
Founder/s: Dmitry Gurski, Andrew Kovzel
Founded year: 2016
Total funding: $276M
UK-based fertility app Flo Health supports women at every stage of their health journey, from menstruation to conception, pregnancy, and menopause. The platform offers curated cycle and ovulation tracking. Users can monitor over 70 symptoms and access various features designed to enhance their understanding and management of their health. Flo also provides users with tailored health insights, expert tips, daily bite-sized visual content, and access to a private digital discussion community focused on health and wellness-related topics. The company launched ‘Flo for Partners’, which enables users to educate and empower their partners with scientific insights into their menstrual and reproductive health.
In July, Flo Health bagged $200 million in a Series C investment from New York-based global growth investor General Atlantic. With this investment, the first fully digital female health startup’s valuation has surpassed $1 billion, making it the first women’s health app to achieve unicorn status.
This investment will help position the company has the world’s largest period and fertility tracker by user numbers for its next phase of growth in the estimated 450 million menopausal women market, with a focus on expanding into new user segments, including perimenopause and menopause. The company also intends to increase its R&D headcount with investments in top-tier talent across its global offices in Europe and North America.
Zenobe – £147M
Founder/s: James Basden, Nicholas Beatty, Steven Meersman
Founded year: 2017
Total funding: $1.4B
Zenobe specialises in battery solutions and fleet electrification to advance clean energy and sustainable transportation. The company designs, finances, builds, and operates large-scale battery storage systems connected to the electricity grid. These systems capture renewable energy, balance its supply, and ensure clean, secure, and affordable power. Zenobe’s mission is to make clean power accessible worldwide, contributing to a net-zero society by accelerating the adoption of renewable energy and electric transportation solutions.
Earlier last year, the company received £147 million of project finance debt to support Scotland’s leadership in renewable energy. The financing was structured by NatWest, and was supported by several leading infrastructure banks including ABN AMRO, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, NatWest, Rabobank, Santander UK, and Siemens Financial Services.
Nscale – $155M
Founder/s: Joshua Payne
Founded year: 2023
Total funding: $185M
UK-based AI-centric hyperscale infrastructure Nscale offers a proprietary AI cloud platform, which sets a new standard for computing performance. By offering bare metal and virtualised GPU nodes, Kubernetes-native services (NKS), and advanced AI workload scheduling through SLURM, the platform delivers unmatched speed and efficiency. Its flagship greenfield data centres, designed with cutting-edge closed-loop direct liquid cooling systems, optimise GPU performance while minimising environmental impact. These facilities are set to scale from 300MW to 1.3GW, reinforcing Nscale’s commitment to sustainability and performance.
In December, Nscale landed $155 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Sandton Capital Partners, alongside Kestrel, Bluesky Asset Management, and Florence Capital. This investment is one of the largest Series A funding rounds in the UK.
The oversubscribed funding will be used to accelerate the company’s growth across Europe and North America. It will also speed up the deployment of large-scale GPU clusters for AI training, fine-tuning, and inferencing workloads. The capital will be used to expand its greenfield data centre sites in Ohio, Texas, the UK, and Norway, with 120MW planned for 2025 development.
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