According to the main findings from the last report released yesterday by the British research house Beauhurst, which focuses on all equity investment in non-listed UK companies in Q1 2017, equity funding in the UK is still stagnant when compared with its steady growth pre-2016, despite a small improvement in deal numbers.
In particular, researchers discovered that even though overall deal numbers increased by 2.7% from the previous quarter, deal numbers were still 6.72% lower than in the same quarter last year.
However, the total amount invested increased by 2.2%, which represents the highest amount since Q1 last year although growth in deal numbers was only seen in early-stage deals.
The equity crowdfunding segment saw almost £45m invested over 80 deals, reporting an 11% growth in deal numbers with growth only seen in early-stage deals.
Among the top investing houses, Seedrs, which yesterday announced the launch of a beta secondary market by the next summer, led the pack with 35 deals followed by Crowdcube (29 deals), Entrepreneur First (17), SyndicateRoom (13) and Scottish Enterprise (11).
According to data, while the South East – the second busiest region for equity investment after London – felt a harsh decline of over 50% in deal numbers, West Midlands reported the highest percent change in regional deal number from Q4 2016.
From a sector perspective, medical technology (medtech) and life sciences reported 3 of the quarter’s 5 biggest deals.
Oliver* 
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