The last year hasn’t been easy for a lot of businesses, and many have had to rely on Government support to continue trading. Going forward, there is still, for obvious reasons, nervousness about how and when the economy will open up, and some confusion about the new support schemes but, for some, the pandemic has presented unprecedented opportunities for growth. This is especially true for tech companies: they’re more able to operate remotely and cope with changing restrictions. And with increasing global reliance on virtual solutions, many have experienced a surge in demand and are hiring new staff to meet it.
However, just because these companies have thrived during the pandemic doesn’t mean that demand for their products and services will ease as restrictions do. A company managing to raise a large amount of equity during COVID shows that investors are willing to bet that their growth will continue in the long term.
In January, Beauhurst identified the fastest growing sectors of 2020 – comparing equity fundraisings in 2020 with 2019.

This month, to see exactly which companies are coming out of the pandemic on top, Beauhurst have put together a list of the 23 tech startups that have raised the most investment since January 2020, and been positively impacted by the pandemic. Whilst 8 are operating in Financial services, 5 in Health related and two in Insurtec, the others are operating in a range of sectors, sector—you’ll even find a Chinese Food delivery business!
Top Tech Startups in the UK 2021
Rank | Company name | Funds since Jan 2020 | Total funds raised | Year founded |
1 | Checkout.com | £454m | £631m | 2012 |
2 | Hopin | £419m | £419m | 2019 |
3 | Cazoo | £365m | £445m | 2018 |
4 | Graphcore | £278m | £528m | 2016 |
5 | Rapyd | £219m | £347m | 2016 |
6 | Oxford Nanopore Technologies | £180m | £673m | 2005 |
7 | Zopa | £160m | £296m | 2004 |
8 | Zego | £130m | £171m | 2016 |
9 | Vaccitech | £121m | £157m | 2016 |
10 | Gyroscope Therapeutics | £108m | £164m | 2016 |
11 | Thought Machine | £97.3m | £123m | 2016 |
12 | Onfido | £79.2m | £175m | 2010 |
13 | Bought by Many | £78.4m | £111m | 2011 |
14 | True Layer | £70.2m | £107m | 2016 |
15 | HungryPanda | £68m | £72.4m | 2016 |
16 | Tandem | £60m | £157m | 2013 |
17 | Cera | £53m | £75.1m | 2015 |
18 | FiveAI | £52m | £68m | 2016 |
19 | Paddle | £51.4m | £77m | 2012 |
20 | BenevolentAI | £44.9m | £253m | 2013 |
21 | Touchlight Genetics | £42m | £56m | 2008 |
22 | Congenica | £40.9m | £67.8 | 2012 |
23 | Atom | £40m | £522m | 2013 |
How Infintec can help
Whether you are a tech business seeking non-dilution funding to get your business back on its growth path, or one that is seeking equity investment, but not quite ready for it, we can help. Innovation funding and scaling is our specialty, along with preparing you for investment.
Email [email protected] and we’ll set up a call.
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