Startups Rate Personal Chemistry with Investors Above All Else in New Survey to Determine their Hierarchy of Needs - Seite 3

While the startups were bullish about their growth ambitions, over two-thirds were pre-revenue in the last financial year. 36 per cent have already raised funding, with a majority funded by family and friends or a pre-seed programme. Only 9 per cent of funded businesses had received a Series A equivalent investment.

Gerard Grech, CEO of Tech City UK, added : "As the UK's digital startups have continued to develop over the past decade, we've seen a huge support network of investors develop alongside them. From crowdfunding to accelerators, and angels to large VC's, there is a huge array of options out there for Founders to consider. Our Future Fifty, Upscale and Northern Star programmes are filled with role models for these early-stage Founders to look to. It's no surprise that this survey has highlighted the global ambitions of our next generation of companies, who have developed in the shadow of some of the UK's leading unicorns. It's reassuring to see that with so many options before them, they consider personal relationships, trust and previous success to be key when considering an investor."

Tech City UK's Tech Nation 2017 survey found that just over half (51 per cent) of business founders or CEOs cited lack of supply of skilled workers as a challenge, whilst just over two fifths (42 per cent) mentioned access to finance. In this survey, however, access to capital emerges as the number one growth challenge for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Nine in ten say this is a challenge, some way ahead of marketing, sales and access to talent. With the majority of survey participants being early stage businesses where they perform all the important tasks with the help of a small team, cash flow and sales are pivotal, while the challenges of growing a larger team are some way off.

Carlos Espinal, Partner at Seedcamp, commented: "At Seedcamp, we've been supporting European entrepreneurial talent for the past ten years through our community of support, global network of reach and efficient access to capital. We know how critical it is to build a strong and functional relationship between investor and founder at the earliest stage and are proud to have supported over 250 companies who've gone on to raise significant follow-on funding and scale valuable, global businesses."