London kept its share of a busy but cooler fortnight for UK tech funding. Total capital dropped sharply even as deal count held up, and a London biotech landed a record public cheque. Here is what founders should note.
London takes six of nine deals in a £107.85m funding week
UK tech startups raised £107.85m across nine rounds in the week to 17 July 2026, down 55% on the week before, according to UKTN’s roundup. Six of the nine went to London companies: Valarian raised £37.3m for sovereign AI infrastructure, Risk Ledger £24m in cyber security, and Marker £9.7m for its AI word processor with backing from Index Ventures and LocalGlobe. Deal flow is steady, but cheque sizes are lumpy week to week. See the roundup.
British Business Bank makes record life sciences bet on Alchemab
London antibody biotech Alchemab Therapeutics extended its Series A with £25m from the British Business Bank on 9 July, the Bank’s largest ever direct life sciences investment. The round takes Alchemab’s Series A to £109m and funds an AI driven antibody pipeline led by a candidate for motor neurone disease. It is a clear signal that state backed capital will write large cheques into UK deep science. Read more.
AI still soaks up most UK venture capital in the first half
UK startups raised around $17.8bn across roughly 680 rounds in the first half of 2026, and AI companies took about 74% of the venture capital deployed. For founders outside AI, that concentration means investors are weighing you against a very hot category, so a sharp wedge and clean metrics matter more than ever. The data.