CGTN Europe’s Juliet Mann looked into the issue and spoke with Mark Pearson, Founder of Fuel Ventures.
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00:00Well, the UK leaving the EU has had an impact on Britain's tech sector and London's role as a global financial centre in terms of jobs and investment.
00:09Investors are concerned that the UK cannot retain high-growth companies. CGTN's Juliet Mann reports.
00:17Food delivery has become a global market, so the takeover of London-headquartered Deliveroo by US delivery giant DoorDash sounds like business as usual.
00:28But market watchers spot a trend of another standout British tech firm being snapped up by an overseas buyer.
00:37I think we've always seen Silicon Valley and America have always paid much better premiums for technology companies.
00:44And the UK has always been super conservative, revenue, profit, not really looking too far ahead and thinking, you know, in five, ten years, this could be ginormous if we reinvested now.
00:55It's not just Deliveroo looking for capital, better valuations and broader investor bases outside London.
01:02Cyber security platform Darktrace moved into private hands in a $5.3 billion takeover by US private equity firm Toma Bravo.
01:12And British chipmaker Armholdings snubbed London for a NASDAQ listing.
01:17What we do want is more super-sized successes.
01:21We don't have a Google.
01:22We don't have these super-sized companies from the UK.
01:26And that's because they're snapped up too early in their prime when they still have tons of potential.
01:31So definitely we need the government to really look at this because that's where the substantial wealth for the country can be delivered back.
01:40We need to make it easier to bring the best talent to the UK, make the home, make the HQs here, because actually it's easier than ever to build an international business.
01:50And we've just got to incentivise it.
01:52China's fast fashion firm Shein has had UK regulator approval for what could be a blockbuster listing in the range of $50 billion.
02:00But London's IPO pipeline has been slower than pre-2020 levels.
02:06That's despite post-Brexit reforms to attract fast-growing firms.
02:11There's been criticism of government support for the start-up sector as being too fragmented.
02:17The House of Lords Communication and Digital Committee warns the UK is at risk of becoming an incubator economy,
02:23a launchpad for innovation that flourishes elsewhere, which triggers bigger questions about the future of the City of London.
02:31Why are we handcuffing ourselves and restricting UK, European entrepreneurs and founders
02:37when other countries are going gangbusters, accelerating and building already substantially some of the fastest-growing companies?
02:45Brexit has knocked domestic investment in the UK start-up scene
02:49Without more focus on what happens when companies get big,
02:53many global investors will continue to view London as less dynamic for tech listings than New York or Hong Kong.
03:01Juliet Mann, CGTN, London.