Dealroom

Dealroom provided the data showing UK startups attracted $7.8bn in VC investment in Q1 2026, with 74% going to AI companies at $5.8bn, cited in the Lowdown UK Startups briefing of May 2026 alongside HSBC Innovation Banking . Dealroom is the primary data source for European startup ecosystem statistics used by governments, VCs, and journalists, and its UK figures are the benchmark the investment community treats as authoritative for quarterly ecosystem health assessments.

Dealroom is an Amsterdam-based data and analytics platform founded in 2013 by Yoram Wijngaarde, tracking startup investments, valuations, founders, investors and exits across Europe and globally. It aggregates investment data from public announcements, SEC filings, Companies House records, and proprietary LP reporting, supplementing with direct company and investor outreach. Dealroom is the data provider behind the European Tech 2023 report and multiple national ecosystem reports commissioned by governments including the UK, Netherlands and France. It competes with PitchBook (US-centric, owned by Morningstar) and CB Insights (US-centric) for European VC analytics, with Dealroom typically cited as more current and granular on European deals than either US competitor.

Dealroom's Q1 2026 UK data, showing AI at 74% of VC by value, is the most cited single figure in the UK's startup narrative during the May 2026 briefing period. Its significance is methodological as well as substantive: Dealroom counts investments by announced deal date rather than money-in date, which can create quarter-end timing effects when large rounds announced in the final weeks of a quarter inflate the headline figure. The 74% AI share reflects both genuine concentration and the deal-announcement distribution of Q1's largest rounds, most of which were AI companies. The same concentration pattern held through Q2: PhysicsX's $300m Series c (8 June, Temasek-led) and CuspAI's pending $400m round (later closing at $2.6bn) both landed without a UK state vehicle on the cap table, the kind of mega-round Dealroom's announced-deal-date methodology weights most heavily in headline totals.