Companies in the South West raised more than £104m of venture capital (VC) funding in the last three months of 2024 – up a staggering 82% on the previous quarter.
The region ranked fourth in the UK overall for VC investments, trailing only London (£2.9bn), the South East (£637.8m) and the East of England (£480.5m), which encompass Oxford and Cambridge.
According to KPMG’s latest Venture Pulse report, 28 transactions were completed across the West Country, up from 21 in the previous quarter, with the highest proportion of deals taking place in Bristol, where seven VC investments took place.
A huge £47.4m was raised by Bristol-based fulfilment services firm Huboo Technologies alone over the period – over half of the total figure raised.
Investment in Huboo Technologies drove an overall strong quarter for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer product and service providers in the South West, with £73.9m invested in a total of 13 companies, spanning logistics, aerospace, environmental services and automotive.
IT was also a robust sector in terms of VC investment, with more than £14.7m invested across 11 regional companies.
David Williams, office senior partner for the South West at KPMG UK, said: “It’s great to see such a steep increase in VC investment in the South West during Q4, positioning it as the fourth largest UK region for the quarter, which is testament to the region’s thriving private business ecosystem.
“Looking ahead to 2025, we’re excited to see the continued growth of the South West’s most promising firms, which span a huge range of sectors, especially those that make the most of VC funding to pursue expansion.”
The UK attracted the highest level of VC investment in Europe in 2024, following a strong end to the year, KPMG said.
Britain raised a total of £15.5bn VC investment after funding in Q4 jumped by more than a third from £3.1bn to £4.4bn. This was driven largely by $1.3bn raised by Greenscale, a London-based AI data centre firm. A total of 569 businesses made up the £4.4bn investment, including £409m raised by Insider and £303m raised by Lighthouse.
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