UK Consumer Tech Update

A core early driver of UK tech success, consumer tech suffered a quiet few years post-Covid. But UK consumer is back in growth mode. The latest date and trends, with HSBC Innovation Banking.

Key findings

• UK venture-backed consumer tech companies are worth a combined $185B, and the 2015-2020 founding cohort holds more of that value than any older one.
• UK consumer startups raised $3B in 2025, up 25% on 2024's $2.4B and the first annual rise in four years, still a third of the $9B raised in 2021.
• The UK has produced 57 consumer unicorns, 29% of all UK companies that have reached a $1B valuation or exit.
• UK consumer ecommerce and marketplace unicorns went from 2 in 2005 to 43 in 2025, and only the US and China have produced more startups in the segment.
• UK gaming startups raised $134M across 54 rounds in 2025, down from $302M in 2024, and the nine biggest rounds of those two years sat in six cities.