As the Lord Mayor of London William Russell begins a three-day visit to San Francisco today (Wednesday 11th December), new research - commissioned by the City of London Corporation and featuring survey data from Prequin - shows that North American venture capital (VC) and private equity fund managers looking to invest into fintech deals over the next two years rank the UK as their first choice of overseas market.

The visit – the 692^nd Lord Mayor’s first overseas during his mayoralty – will see him lead a business delegation of several of the UK’s most exciting fintech startups to meet prominent fund management organisations, including Amex Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures, Norwest. There will also be several UK fund managers in the delegation to showcase the opportunities provided by UK/US VC co-investment partnerships.

The research and programme in San Francisco are part of a new City Corporation campaign to bring growing UK fintechs together with Silicon Valley investors - primarily through co-investment with partners in UK VCs.

Among the key insights were that 90% of North American VC and private equity fund managers believe that “impressive founders and teams” can be found across UK fintech firms, while 85% believe that UK fintech firms typically have “strong business models and strategies”.

These are the two factors that they overwhelmingly identified as being of “critical” importance in their considerations around investing into fintech deals (61% said ‘impressive founders and teams’ is critical and 63% said ‘strong business models and strategies’ is critical).

Lord Mayor of London William Russell said:

“The UK and London’s fintech sector is already a huge success story. As we embrace the digitisation of the global economy, fintech offers us a golden opportunity to reshape the UK and USA’s trading relationship and bring prosperity to both of our countries for generations to come.

“There is still huge untapped potential in this partnership. That’s why the direct engagement that we will have with VCs in San Francisco will be so important – to raise awareness of UK expertise and foster the relationships that will lead to tomorrow’s deals.”

Full list of organisations represented in the business delegation:

• Acceleris
• Anthemis
• Cazana
• Goodbox
• Gresham House Ventures
• Project Imagine
• Mosaic Data

ENDS

Notes to editors

The City of London Corporation is the governing body of the Square Mile dedicated to a vibrant and thriving City, supporting a diverse and sustainable London within a globally-successful UK.

The survey was carried out between November 15 and December 6, 2019. It received 167 responses from global venture capital and private equity fund managers with aggregate asset under management of about $400bn. The survey had 52 respondents from North America, together managing about $96bn of assets.

Joe Dibben

International Media Officer

City of London Corporation Guildhall

Direct dial: 020 7332 1906

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