The UK happens to be the top European market and is also one of the key global markets for venture capital (VC) funding. However, it has been experiencing a subdued funding activity in the recent months with monthly VC funding volume and value for 2022 falling to new lows in August, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that the total VC funding raised by the UK-based startups fell below $1 billion in August. It was also the first month in 2022 that failed to register a triple-digit deal volume.

The VC funding value nosedived by 57.6% to $708.3 million in August, while the VC funding deal volume fell by 21.9% to 89 compared to the previous month.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The month-on-month VC funding trend remained inconsistent in 2022 with some of the months witnessing growth in deal volume and value followed by consecutive months of decline. In fact, August marks the second consecutive month of decline in VC funding activity for the UK.”

August also saw the announcement of only one deal valued more than or equal to $100 million compared to announcement of four such deals in this value range during the previous month.

Meanwhile, the cumulative VC funding deal volume announced during January to August 2022 in the UK was 1,174, whereas the corresponding disclosed funding value stood at $18.7 billion.

Bose concludes: “High inflation, changing political scenarios and geopolitical tensions seem to have made investors adopt a cautious approach. Resultantly, we are seeing a drop in the VC funding activity.”

(Note: Historic data may change in case some deals get added to previous months because of a delay in disclosure of information in the public domain)