Growth in the wake of Brexit?
There’s nothing like rapid disruption to create the space for rapid growth. Whilst newspapers are dogged with gloomy forecasts of what a post-Brexit Britain will look like, investment in the Startup sector has peaked.
In the wake of Britain’s decision to leave the EU there has been plenty to raise alarm. Huge corporations such as JP Morgan, HSBC and Barclays have opted to move a substantial amount of their workforce to a new European base and the value of the pound has plummeted.
For the startup scene however things are looking up. On average there are now 69 deals struck per quarter, compared to 45 prior to the referendum outcome. There has also been a rise in the amount of funding secured since June 2016, at approximately £739 million per quarter compared to previous figures of around £605 million.
Seed-stage investments have slowed but there is a mushroom effect wherein ‘unicorn’ companies such as Deliveroo and Monzo have seen growth and investment at a later stage. In 2017, investment from Silicon Valley topped £1 Billion for the first time ever and jobs in the digital tech sector are growing at 5x that of the broader UK economy.
It is unwise to attempt to predict the impact the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in March 2019 will have on business growth, but one thing’s for sure and that is that blind pessimism isn’t productive. Traditional industries are constantly disrupted by new technology and innovation; Brexit or not, stability is no longer something we can rely on. The only control we can maintain is an agile attitude wherein we see the opportunities, not the losses and continue to find new, better ways of doing things.
