UK Venture Capital Financial Returns 2026

The UK Venture Capital Financial Returns 2026 report provides a comprehensive assessment of the performance of UK VC funds since 2002. The report draws together data directly sourced from fund managers, the Bank’s investment portfolio, as well as from commercial data providers Pitchbook and Preqin.

The report contains the following chapters:

• Chapter 1 provides an overview of UK VC financial returns in comparison to the US and the rest of Europe, analysing performance over different vintage year cohorts.
• Chapter 2 benchmarks UK VC returns by investment stage and against alternative asset classes. It also includes analysis of performance persistence in VC markets.
• Chapter 3 assesses the performance of VC funds the Bank has invested in through its Investment business, including its ECF, venture and venture growth portfolios.

Key findings

UK early stage VC funds have generated competitive returns, while the late stage gap with the US has narrowed significantly in recent vintages

Early stage UK VC funds across 2002-2024 vintages generated a pooled total value to paid-in capital (TVPI) multiple of 1.85, compared with 1.81 in the US and 1.84 in the rest of Europe. While UK late stage funds have historically generated lower returns than their US counterparts, the gap has narrowed significantly for recent vintages. UK late stage funds with 2020-2024 vintages generated a pooled TVPI of 1.18, compared with 1.23 for US funds.

There is performance persistence in global VC returns, with top performing managers more likely to deliver strong successor funds

New analysis of over 800 fund progressions across 390 managers globally finds evidence of performance persistence between successive funds. Of the funds succeeding a top-quartile TVPI fund, 39% also achieved top-quartile performance, compared with the 25% that would be expected if outcomes were randomly distributed. In addition, only 8% of fund progressions involved a move from bottom to top-quartile returns.  

The UK's overall pooled TVPI performance is in line with the US market, though it remains behind in producing realised returns

On an overall basis UK VC funds with 2002-2021 vintages generated a pooled total value to paid-in capital (TVPI) multiple of 1.78, in line with the US (1.78) and ahead of the rest of Europe (1.67). When focusing on realised returns, the UK's pooled distributions to paid-in capital (DPI) multiple of 0.62 was below the US (0.83) but in line with the rest of Europe (0.65).

UK funds with vintages since 2020 are continuing to outperform their US and European counterparts

UK VC funds with 2020-2024 vintages generated a pooled TVPI multiple of 1.40, compared to 1.24 for US funds and 1.27 for funds in the rest of Europe. UK funds also outperformed both comparators at the median and upper quartile. UK funds outperformed despite a sharper rise in AI valuations in the US, suggesting that UK returns are more broad-based.

The Bank's ECF programme has higher DPI returns than the wider market, while the venture and growth portfolio performs in line on a median TVPI basis

VC funds supported by the Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF) programme with 2006-2024 vintages generated a pooled DPI multiple of 0.67, compared with 0.50 for the wider UK VC market. Looking at the Bank's venture and growth portfolio for 2018-2024 vintages, the median TVPI multiple of 1.23 was broadly in line with the wider UK market benchmark of 1.21.