A quiz question: how much venture capital investment does Britain attract compared with the United States, relative to the size of the economy? Is it a) 20 per cent; b) 50 per cent; or c) 80 per cent?
It’s a bit of a trick, sorry. The answer is actually 100 per cent. Yes, the UK has caught up with the country that invented venture capital. Averaged over the past three years, investment was equivalent to just under 1 per cent of GDP in both.
Surprised? You are not alone. I’ve asked lots of finance folk this question recently and all were astonished by the answer. They all assumed there was still a big funding gap for UK growth companies compared with the US. Yet figures