The value of venture capital raised by UK companies rose to its highest first quarter total on record, says specialist data provider Refinitiv.

UK companies raised £2.1 billion from 137 deals in the first three months of 2020 – up from the £1.9 billion in Q1 2019 from 135 deals. This represents a 13 percent rise in value and a 1 percent rise in volume year-on-year. Deal value was also slightly down from the last three months of 2019 which saw £2.4 billion raised from 132 deals.

The total raised was over double that of French companies, the next most active European nation, with £890 million raised from 62 deals. Rounding off the top three, Swedish companies saw 13 rounds valued at £326.2 million.

London-based companies accounted for six out of the top ten VC deals in Europe which included the top deal, the £411.6m funding round into Revolut, followed by Purely Capital's £150.2 million investment in second place.

The most active investors in the UK were Index Ventures which invested £71.8 million in eight deals. Softbank Investment Advisers followed up in second with six deals investing £579.9 million and LocalGlobe invested £25.7 million in six deals as well.

Cornelia Andersson, Head of M&A and Capital Raising at Refinitiv comments: "The momentum from a record level of investment in 2019 has carried onto 2020 which is a good news story for UK enterprise during these troubled times.

"However, it is still surprising that venture capital was unaffected by the same coronavirus woes faced by M&A. We could be seeing that a lot of Q1 investment was prepared and priced earlier and just finalized in this quarter and there's the potential for a slow down into Q2 as the economic shock finally comes to bear.

"Despite this, with huge expected demand for products and services to cope in this new normal, it wouldn't be surprising to see investors pivot more towards ‘covid-proof' start-ups that enable remote working, connectivity or pharmaceuticals."

Across Europe, venture capital activity totalled £4.3 billion invested across 294 rounds during the first three months of 2020. While this marked a 24 percent decline in values and a 29 percent decline in volumes from the same period last year, it remained the second strongest opening quarter on record from a value perspective.

Volumes, on the other hand, continued their downwards trend and this represented the least active first quarter since 2009. Eleven venture capital rounds over £89 million were completed during Q1. At the top of the list was the £411.6 million investment into London-based digital bank, Revolut, led by United States-based firm Technology Crossover Ventures with support from existing backers.

Co-living startup Colonies, headquartered in Paris, raised £160.4 million in a round led by LBO France and with support from Idinvest Partners, Global Founders Capital, and La Financière Saint James.

Rounding out the top three for the quarter was the £150.6 million investment into payment receivables platform Purely Capital by an undisclosed investor in March. Purely had previously been backed by Finch Capital, an early stage FinTech investor based in the Netherlands.

Funds located within the borders of Europe invested £2.4 billion into domestic startups in the first quarter, accounting for 62 percent of total disclosed investment. Funds located within the United States contributed a total of £1.2 billion, or 30 percent, up from a 29 percent share throughout the entirety of 2019.

Asia-based investors saw their share drop from 8 percent to 5 percent with £212.1 million contributed.

A total of 15 European venture funds recorded closes in Q1, raising a combined £1.2 billion in commitments, a decrease of 29 percent when compared to Q1 2019 and the slowest fundraising start to a year since 2015.

Newly launched A/O PropTech raised £222.8 million for its first fund which will focus on real estate technology investment across all stages of the venture cycle. Felix Capital's third fund closed at its hard-cap of £239.7 million with an additional £208.5 million raised in the first quarter, and will continue to execute on the firm's commitment of backing digital lifestyle companies.

Speedinvest also raised £169.3 million for its third flagship fund, Speedinvest III, which will focus on early stage tech startups in Europe across a wide variety of sectors.

European venture-backed exits totaled £9.4 billion across 35 transactions in the first three months, a more than 1,400 percent increase in values and a 30 percent uptick by number of transactions when compared to 2019.

Largely contributing to the increase was the completion of the acquisition of venture-backed Just Eat by rival food delivery business Takeaway.com, valued at £6.5 billion.

The top newly reported exit in the quarter was the £253.9 million acquisition of cell and gene therapy platform MaSTherCell by pharmaceutical giant Catalent, announced and completed in early February.

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The value of venture capital raised by UK companies rose to its highest first quarter total on record, says specialist data provider Refinitiv.

UK companies raised £2.1 billion from 137 deals in the first three months of 2020 – up from the £1.9 billion in Q1 2019 from 135 deals. This represents a 13 percent rise in value and a 1 percent rise in volume year-on-year. Deal value was also slightly down from the last three months of 2019 which saw £2.4 billion raised from 132 deals.

The total raised was over double that of French companies, the next most active European nation, with £890 million raised from 62 deals. Rounding off the top three, Swedish companies saw 13 rounds valued at £326.2 million.

London-based companies accounted for six out of the top ten VC deals in Europe which included the top deal, the £411.6m funding round into Revolut, followed by Purely Capital's £150.2 million investment in second place.

The most active investors in the UK were Index Ventures which invested £71.8 million in eight deals. Softbank Investment Advisers followed up in second with six deals investing £579.9 million and LocalGlobe invested £25.7 million in six deals as well.

Cornelia Andersson, Head of M&A and Capital Raising at Refinitiv comments: "The momentum from a record level of investment in 2019 has carried onto 2020 which is a good news story for UK enterprise during these troubled times.

"However, it is still surprising that venture capital was unaffected by the same coronavirus woes faced by M&A. We could be seeing that a lot of Q1 investment was prepared and priced earlier and just finalized in this quarter and there's the potential for a slow down into Q2 as the economic shock finally comes to bear.

"Despite this, with huge expected demand for products and services to cope in this new normal, it wouldn't be surprising to see investors pivot more towards ‘covid-proof' start-ups that enable remote working, connectivity or pharmaceuticals."

Across Europe, venture capital activity totalled £4.3 billion invested across 294 rounds during the first three months of 2020. While this marked a 24 percent decline in values and a 29 percent decline in volumes from the same period last year, it remained the second strongest opening quarter on record from a value perspective.

Volumes, on the other hand, continued their downwards trend and this represented the least active first quarter since 2009. Eleven venture capital rounds over £89 million were completed during Q1. At the top of the list was the £411.6 million investment into London-based digital bank, Revolut, led by United States-based firm Technology Crossover Ventures with support from existing backers.

Co-living startup Colonies, headquartered in Paris, raised £160.4 million in a round led by LBO France and with support from Idinvest Partners, Global Founders Capital, and La Financière Saint James.

Rounding out the top three for the quarter was the £150.6 million investment into payment receivables platform Purely Capital by an undisclosed investor in March. Purely had previously been backed by Finch Capital, an early stage FinTech investor based in the Netherlands.

Funds located within the borders of Europe invested £2.4 billion into domestic startups in the first quarter, accounting for 62 percent of total disclosed investment. Funds located within the United States contributed a total of £1.2 billion, or 30 percent, up from a 29 percent share throughout the entirety of 2019.

Asia-based investors saw their share drop from 8 percent to 5 percent with £212.1 million contributed.

A total of 15 European venture funds recorded closes in Q1, raising a combined £1.2 billion in commitments, a decrease of 29 percent when compared to Q1 2019 and the slowest fundraising start to a year since 2015.

Newly launched A/O PropTech raised £222.8 million for its first fund which will focus on real estate technology investment across all stages of the venture cycle. Felix Capital's third fund closed at its hard-cap of £239.7 million with an additional £208.5 million raised in the first quarter, and will continue to execute on the firm's commitment of backing digital lifestyle companies.

Speedinvest also raised £169.3 million for its third flagship fund, Speedinvest III, which will focus on early stage tech startups in Europe across a wide variety of sectors.

European venture-backed exits totaled £9.4 billion across 35 transactions in the first three months, a more than 1,400 percent increase in values and a 30 percent uptick by number of transactions when compared to 2019.

Largely contributing to the increase was the completion of the acquisition of venture-backed Just Eat by rival food delivery business Takeaway.com, valued at £6.5 billion.

The top newly reported exit in the quarter was the £253.9 million acquisition of cell and gene therapy platform MaSTherCell by pharmaceutical giant Catalent, announced and completed in early February.