COVID-19 caused a global economic shock. It created grave challenges for some businesses and acted as a catalyst for innovation and ingenuity for others.
Private Finance for Innovation, a new report (PDF, 887KB) commissioned by Innovate UK, has examined how equity markets have responded to the pandemic and how this has affected innovation.
Private equity’s role in innovation
Equity markets have a huge role to play in providing external firms to innovative firms, but there were initial fears this funding could dry up due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
Jose Argudo, Economist at Innovate UK, said:
The report has highlighted that those initial fears have proved to be largely unfounded.
2020 was in fact characterised by record-breaking investment levels, up to £13.2 billion from £10.6 billion in 2019.
Contrasting experiences
The report found that:
- the number of deals in the UK decreased overall from 3,400 to 2,700
- investors focused on a smaller number of larger investments.
This meant a particular group of businesses was affected, as Argudo explained:
Investors showed an appetite for technologies that promoted short-term adjustments to the new situation we found ourselves in. The food technology sector was a major beneficiary.
The key casualties were those looking for startup and early-stage funding, and those companies that wanted to secure equity finance for the first time.
This creates risk, as these firms are often responsible for future job creation. A lack of investment could affect medium-term growth.
Public and private sector finance
Investment choices made in the wake of the pandemic have meant less resource is available elsewhere. Levels of investment in companies supporting the decarbonisation and net zero agendas fell in 2020.
Argudo said:
Government efforts provided an all-round suite of support measures for businesses, including support for innovation delivered by Innovate UK and UKRI.
Innovation is key to promote short-term resilience and long-term recovery, and ‘Build Back Better’. Our role in the rebuilding phase is to influence research and development spending to achieve broader policy aims such as the levelling up agenda.
Additional information
To mark the first anniversary of COVID-related funding reaching UK businesses, Innovate UK has commissioned a series of online videos. The videos celebrate the ingenuity and resilience of innovative businesses it has funded right across the UK.
Watch the playlist of videos on YouTube.
Last updated: 8 June 2021