UK start-ups raised a record $17bn (£12.7bn) in the first half of 2026, double the amount raised in the same period last year and the strongest opening to any year since 2022, according to new figures from Dealroom and HSBC Innovation Banking.
Yet only 16 per cent of large funding rounds involved domestic investors, a statistic that should give anyone cheering the headline number pause.
Britain is, on this evidence, still comfortably Europe’s start-up capital. The UK attracted 39 per cent of all European venture capital investment in the period, more than France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland combined.
Artificial intelligence did most of the heavy lifting. AI companies raised a record $12.6bn (£9.4bn), nearly three quarters of everything invested, and took 19 of the 28 megarounds of $100m (£75m) or more completed in the half. All four rounds above $1bn (£750m) went to AI firms, the largest being the $2.1bn (£1.6bn) raised by Isomorphic Labs.
“The first half of 2026 demonstrates the continued strength of the UK’s innovation ecosystem, with record levels of investment reflecting growing confidence from both domestic and international investors,” said Emily Turner, chief executive of HSBC Innovation Banking UK.
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