2021 was a document yr for fairness funding in Wales’s smaller companies in keeping with the British Enterprise Financial institution’s annual Small Enterprise Fairness Tracker 2022 revealed right this moment.
The report outlines how the funding worth of introduced fairness offers in Wales rose by 44% on 2020 values to £83m, regardless of the amount of offers falling by 22% on the earlier yr, indicating deal sizes elevated in Wales in 2021.
Momentum has continued into Q1 2022, with £26m fairness funding in smaller companies in Wales.
Throughout the UK the sturdy fairness image was mirrored, with fairness funding in smaller UK companies growing by 88%, reaching a document degree at £18.1bn, almost double that of 2020. The variety of offers additionally elevated by 17% to 2,616.
Cluster exercise
Evaluation from the Financial institution additionally included a evaluation of the highest 20 UK hubs for fairness funding over the previous three years, with Cardiff positioned at quantity 10.
The Welsh capital has a mean of £34m of fairness funding per yr, with software program the biggest sector by variety of offers.
Swansea additionally options at quantity 19, with a mean of £7m of fairness funding. The most important sector by variety of offers was enterprise & skilled providers.
London’s share of the UK’s fairness offers elevated to 49% in 2021, up from 46% in 2020 however the report confirmed clear proof of sturdy clusters of deal exercise outdoors of London.
Susan Nightingale, UK Community Director, Wales at British Enterprise Financial institution, stated: “A document yr for fairness funding in Wales demonstrates actual proof of the resilience of the Welsh monetary panorama.
“General funding worth has risen considerably, regardless of deal numbers being down, suggesting that some substantial deal values have been accomplished, led primarily by a burgeoning expertise sector that’s rising at tempo. Having Cardiff throughout the high 10 fairness clusters for UK deal exercise additional demonstrates its attractiveness for progressive and excessive progress firms.”
Know-how continues to dominate the fairness panorama
Throughout the UK, expertise firms proceed to draw essentially the most funding. The yr noticed 1,019 offers with £8.2bn invested into UK tech firms, doubling from £4.1bn the earlier yr.
This nationwide image is mirrored in Wales, the place funding worth rose by simply over £15m in 2021, a rise of 67% on the earlier yr.
Extra monetary help for Welsh smaller companies is ready to be obtainable subsequent yr, with the launch of the Subsequent Technology of Regional Funds together with a brand new £130m Welsh fund administered by the British Enterprise Financial institution to additional deal with geographical funding gaps.
The Financial institution supported round 18% of all introduced UK fairness offers in 2021, with funds supported by the Financial institution extra prone to spend money on expertise and IP-based companies in comparison with the general fairness market. Essentially the most not too long ago introduced fairness deal supported by the Financial institution in Wales was Swansea based mostly Smile Plastics through its Regional Angels Programme supply companion, the Inexperienced Angel Syndicate.
