Like most of the world, London set some big records in terms of venture capital and startups in 2021. By almost any metric - including funding, megarounds, exits, unicorns - London surpassed all previous years. But it also did so in some style.
While global venture grew 2x globally year on year in 2021 to $675B, London investment grew 2.3x year on year. Not bad for a mature, established tech hub that ranks fourth globally after the Bay Area, New York and Boston.
We teamed up with London & Partners to see how London and other global hubs fared in 2021, and here are a few headlines:
London startups raised $25.5B in 2021 - 2.3x 2020 levels, and as much as was raised in the Bay Area five years ago
London ranks fourth globally for number of new unicorns in 2021 (20)
Startups raised $675B globally in 2021, double the previous record
Combined enterprise value of London startups passed half a trillion dollars in 2021
While growth is heavily driven by megarounds, which accounted for 67% of all funding, early-stage funding is also booming, especially in Europe and emerging markets. 2021 saw almost 1.8k early-stage fintech rounds, nearly 2x from 2016.
But fintech also saw $490B of exit value realized in 2021, more than in the last 5 years combined.
But beyond the headlines of funding records, and megarounds, with emerging categories from NFTs to BNPL, crypto exchanges & custody, revenue-based financing, neo brokers transforming not only fintech but financial services as a whole, is fintech finally taking over finance?
