London remains Europe’s startup capital and ranked fourth globally for VC investment in 2021. The city’s tech companies raised an all-time high of $25.5 billion in VC funding last year, more than double its 2020 total. An influx of capital into the U.K. capital from Silicon Valley is driving much of this boom. Cleantech has been a particularly hot sub-sector with $1.7 billion pumped into London-based Cleantech companies in 2021. London is the #2 city globally for the number of Cleantech rounds raised by startups.

Local VC firms include Balderton Capital, which focuses on backing European technology companies. In November 2021, it announced it had raised a second, $600 million fund. Early-stage VC firm Passion Capital announced its third, $62.5 million fund in March 2021.

Unsurprisingly given this flood of investment, London gained 20 new unicorns in 2021, more than any other previous year. These include Insuretech Marshmallow, SaaS company TrueLayer, and Fintech Starling Bank. London’s total unicorn count now stands at 75, making it the unicorn capital of Europe. In January 2022, Wayve, a provider of autonomous vehicle software, raised a $200 million Series B round that drew participation from Microsoft, Eclipse Ventures, and Balderton Capital, among others.