“Last year was a difficult year for generalist VCs, but deep tech didn’t really suffer the same slowdown,” says Dave Grimm, partner at London-based AlbionVC, which in August last year entered into a £13m Series A investment round for University of Bristol and UCL quantum start-up Phasecraft. “There’s certainly a lot more optimism for 2024.”

For Grimm, a seasoned analyst and investor in quantum computing, cleantech, machine learning, and data analytics technologies, there’s still a way to go for UK start-up hubs to reach the levels of their US counterparts. That said, he admits there is a lot more deep tech cash in the UK market today and much of that is focused on university spin-outs, where he expects to see even more activity this year.