The Top 10 UK Start-Up Funding Rounds for H1

Venture capital is the lifeblood of technology and innovation. While UK investment has dipped since geopolitical turmoil sent global inflation and interest rates soaring in 2022, the country — Europe’s leader for technological innovation — saw its highest quarterly level of VC investment ever since in Q2 2024, suggesting that a recovery to the previous boom years could be underway.

Here, we’re exploring the ten biggest VC rounds in the UK during H1 2024 — with artificial intelligence (AI), fintech and climate tech clearly standing out as frontrunners in the race to grab investors’ attention. 

1. Wayve: $1.05bn

Wayve brings together two of the hottest trends in technology: AI and self-driving vehicles. 

Its embodied AI technology embeds AI into vehicles themselves, equipping them with a “robot brain” that enables them to learn autonomously from the world around them. 

Wayve secured a $1.05bn (approximately £812.8m) Series C in May, making it the UK’s largest of the year so far. While Wayve’s valuation wasn’t disclosed, the value of the funding alone is enough for unicorn status, so we can assume this makes Wayve a unicorn several times over. The round was led by SoftBank Group, and was supported by Nvidia and Microsoft.

“This investment will enable us to develop and launch our first Embodied AI products for the automotive industry, empowering OEMs to provide consumers with trustworthy and beneficial automated driving experiences,” said Alex Kendall, Co-founder and CEO of Wayve.

“I’m incredibly proud that the UK is the home for pioneers like Wayve who are breaking ground as they develop the next generation of AI models for self-driving cars,” added then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. 

2. Monzo: $621m

Challenger bank Monzo raised funds in both Q1 and Q2. Its $430m (£340m) Q1 raise alone would have been enough for a top five spot on this list, but Monzo then added an additional $190m in May to bring H1’s total funding to approximately $620m.

CapitalG, the growth fund of Google’s parent company Alphabet, led the original round and also contributed to the second, with Google Ventures also involved in the first tranche. HongShan Capital (formerly Sequoia Capital China) and existing investors Passion Capital and Tencent were also involved in the initial round, while Hedosophia and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC also got involved in May.

The funding — which CEO TS Anil told CNBC will go towards building new features and increasing international rollouts — gives Monzo a valuation of approximately $5.2bn.

3. Highview Power: $387m

London-based Highview Power landed £300m (approximately $387m) in June to build the UK’s first commercial-scale liquid air energy storage (LAES) plant in Carrington, near Manchester. The funding was led by the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) and supported by Centrica, Rio Tinto and Goldman Sachs, among others.

What on earth is LAES, you say?

Anyone who knows anything about clean energy knows that one of its major challenges is storage. How do you store the excess energy generated while the sun is shining, or the wind is blowing, and make it available when they aren’t?

Batteries are one solution, but they come with all sorts of their own problems. One promising alternative is LAES. Put (over-)simply, LAES uses the excess energy to convert air into liquid nitrogen, which becomes a gas (i.e. boils) at temperatures above -196℃. As soon as extra energy is needed, it takes just a slight increase in temperature to generate nitrogen steam, which can power a turbine and produce electricity. 

Highview’s plant will have a storage capacity of 300 MWh and an output power of 50 MW per hour for six hours. It will be able to store renewable energy for several weeks — longer than batteries can.

4. Quantinuum: $300m

Artificial intelligence has had everyone’s attention over the past couple of years, but quantum computing could be on the verge of becoming the next big thing in tech.

Cambridge-based Quantinuum landed $300m at a $5bn (£3.9bn) valuation in January. The round was led by JPMorgan Chase, and included contributions from Mitsui & Co., Amgen and Honeywell, its major shareholder. 

Formed out of a 2021 merger between the UK’s Cambridge Quantum Computing and the US’ Honeywell Quantum Solutions, Quantinuum has a presence in Cambridge, Oxford and London, as well as three sites in the US, one in Germany and one in Japan. 

Rajeeb Hazra, CEO of Quantinuum, called the investment “a clear indication of the value we will continue to create with the world’s highest performing quantum computers, groundbreaking middleware to accelerate the developer ecosystem and innovative application software to revolutionise fields like cryptography, computational chemistry, and AI.”

5. Deep Green: £200m

Continuing the trend of innovative clean energy solutions netting big investment rounds, Deep Green secured £200m (approximately $257m) from Octopus Energy’s Transition Fund in January.

Deep Green takes the excess heat generated by data centres, and uses this to power energy-intensive organisations. For example, a public swimming pool in Devon was able to cut its energy costs by 60% by partnering with Deep Green.

The Octopus Energy Transition Fund invests in innovative companies that are helping to enable the shift to net zero. 

6. Flagstone: £108m

Fintech platform Flagstone landed a £108m ($138m) equity growth investment from Estancia Capital Partners in March. 

Flagstone is the largest UK cash savings platform by the number of banks and savings accounts on its panel. It has over 600,000 customers, and its Assets under Administration (AUA) stood at above £11bn at the time of the deal.

Estancia will take a minority stake in Flagstone as part of the deal, and its co-founder and managing director Takashi Moriuchi and vice president Keegan Mitchell will take seats on Flagstone’s board.

7. char.gy: £100m

The third clean energy business that made the UK’s top ten funding rounds during H1 was char.gy, which secured an increased commitment of £100m (approximately $128.6m) from Zouk Capital to power its rollout of its on-street charging infrastructure across the UK.

Drawing on funding anchored to the UK government’s Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (CIIF), the June fund raise will enable char.gy to boost its presence from 3,000 charging points today to approximately 100,000 by 2030. 

8. Pheon Therapeutics: $120m

Pheon Therapeutics is a King’s College London spinout that develops specialised cancer treatments known as Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADC). 

Medical investment firm TCGX led a $120m (approximately £93.4m) Series B round in May, and was joined by existing investors Atlas Venture, Brandon Capital, Forbion, and Research Corporation Technologies as well as other new investors BVF Partners, Lightspeed and Perceptive Advisors.

9. Exhohood Labs: $112m

Exhohood Labs, a profit-limited R&D organisation that deploys AI to further discovery in the AQB (AI, quantum and blockchain) fields, raised $112m (£88.7m) in funding from Livsquare Capital in February. 

Exohood applies AQB technologies to a wide range of fields, including space exploration and biomedicine. Its 2023 transition from a non-profit to a limited-profit organisation is expected to bolster its research capabilities, without compromising on its core mission of developing groundbreaking technologies for social benefit. 

10. Build a Rocket Boy: $110m

Independent gaming and entertainment developer Build a Rocket Boy secured a $110m series D in January. 

Led by RedBird Capital Partners and supported by Galaxy Interactive, NetEase Games, Endeavor, Alignment Growth, Woodline Partners LP and GTAM Partners, among others, the round will support Build a Rocket Boy’s commercialisation as it launches AAA game MindsEye and EVERYWHERE, its immersive gaming platform.

Leslie Benzies, Founder and Chairman of Build A Rocket Boy, said “I started Build A Rocket Boy so that I could continue to share the stories I love with players and give them a place to create and share. We believe in a future where game creation is put in the hands of the players, and we will empower them with the tools to help shape this vision with us.”

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