The land of King Charles has finally matched the land of King Dollar in at least one regard – the allocation of venture capital.

Surprise new figures from the British Business Bank show that UK venture capital has reached a new milestone in its development, tying with the US and beating the rest of Europe on long-term performance.

Its latest UK Venture Capital Financial Returns report finds UK venture capital funds generated a pooled Total Value to Paid-In Capital (TVPI) return of 1.78x for 2002-2021 vintages, matching the US at 1.78x and outperforming the rest of Europe at 1.67x. On distributions back to investors, the UK pooled Distributions to Paid In capital (DPI) is below the US but in line with the rest of Europe.

The strongest relative performance came from more recent UK funds, which are outperforming both US and European peers. UK venture capital funds launched between 2020 and 2024 delivered pooled TVPI returns of 1.40x, ahead of both the US at 1.24x and the rest of Europe at 1.27x.

The findings suggest that the performance of the UK venture capital market has been resilient, despite a challenging global fundraising and exit environment.

While the UK has historically demonstrated its greatest strength at the earliest stages of company growth, in recent years UK funds are delivering stronger results later in the investment lifecycle, significantly narrowing the gap with US peers.

Among 2014-2019 vintages, UK late-stage funds trailed the US by 0.78x on a pooled TVPI basis. For 2020-2024 vintages, that gap narrowed to just 0.05x. During the same period, UK generalist funds generated pooled TVPI returns of 1.91x compared with 1.20x in the US. Taken together, the findings suggest the UK is becoming increasingly competitive across the funding lifecycle.

The UK continues to produce the highest returns at the earliest stages of company growth. Across the full dataset, covering funds launched between 2002 and 2024, UK early-stage venture funds generated pooled TVPI returns of 1.85x, in line with the US at 1.81x and the rest of Europe at 1.84x.

Leandros Kalisperas, Chief Investment Officer, British Business Bank, said: “For many years, US venture capital has been seen as the world-leader. This research shows the UK is increasingly closing the gap, matching US returns overall and outperforming among the latest generation of funds.

“It underlines the quality of the UK’s venture sector, and its ability to support innovative businesses from startup through to scale-up.”

UK Private Capital Chief Executive Michael Moore added: “Strong returns from British venture capital should be celebrated, but they also highlight an opportunity that domestic institutional investors are missing by underinvesting in this asset class.

“UK pension funds have real scope to seize more of this opportunity, enabling British pension savers to benefit from a world-class VC industry that scales ambitious startups into internationally competitive businesses. We hope Mansion House signatories see this and act to make sure they don’t miss out on backing the next generation of British unicorns.”

For the first time the report examines performance persistence in venture capital, looking at more than 800 fund progressions globally across 390 fund managers. This found that 39 per cent of successors to top-quartile funds also achieved top-quartile performance, around one-and-a-half times the level expected by chance. More than 70 per cent remained above the median, highlighting the importance of track record in venture investing.