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US investment in London

Image of an elevated train on colourful tracks travelling across a river bridge in the business district of London.
US Investment in London. Image credit: © visitlondon.com/Antoine Buchet
London’s business ecosystem has all the right ingredients an international company needs to successfully setup, grow and scale.

Why US businesses invest in London 

  • London’s business ecosystem provides access to the financial centre of New York, the tech of Silicon Valley and the policy makers of Washington, all within a 15-minute journey on public transport.
  • According to Startup Genome’s 2022 Global Startup Ecosystem report, London ranks joint second with New York globally (behind Silicon Valley) in a ranking looking at the best startup ecosystems to grow a successful tech company.
  • London is Europe’s largest tech hub. In 2022, the UK capital’s tech firms raised an impressive $19.8bn in total, more than double any other European city.
  • London is home to more HQs than any other European city, providing easy access to key decision makers, customers and clients.
  • Global investors continue to pump large sums of money into London VC funds. The total amount of fresh capital raised by London-based VCs in 2022 was $6.6bn, more than any previous year.

London's business landscape

  • London is a city of convergence bringing together creative energy and innovation. Its strengths in traditional industries, such as financial services and creative sectors, are combining with innovation and technology to create many new investment and job opportunities.
  • London is a testbed for innovation and a place where new ideas can thrive, from the world’s first underground railway to DNA mapping and the recent protein folding discovery from DeepMind.
  • London is creating some of the world’s most innovative companies in convergence sectors such as fintech, retailtech, edtech, healthtech and fashtech. London companies consistently attract more investment and have seen more startup growth in these sectors than any other European hub.
Arrivals from North America are typically stronger around the months of June and July, coinciding with their holiday period.
Forward Keys, August 2023

Investing in London right now

  • London is not only Europe’s largest tech hub, it is competitive on the global stage and ranks amongst the top innovation hubs in the world. London is the leading destination for US foreign direct investment since 2012, generating almost 80,000 new jobs, attracting 2,116 projects, or 14.8%, of all US projects to western Europe.
  • London is well placed to weather global economic headwinds due to its strengths in fast-growing sectors. Despite the challenging global economic climate, latest data from Dealroom showed that London’s edtech, cybersecurity and gaming sectors all raised more funding in 2022 than 2021.
  • In 2022, London’s fintech sector saw a strong performance with the UK capital’s fintech firms raising a total of $9.7bn, more than any other city globally.
  • Some of the world’s fastest-growing companies are born in London and the city is now home to 80 unicorns, making it the unicorn capital of Europe. The UK is home to 113 unicorns.
  • London was recently voted as fDi Intelligence’s top European City of the Future for 2022/2023, highlighting its resilience and strong future growth potential.

US investment in London in numbers

0

ICT and electronics

0

creative industries

0

professional services

0

financial services

0

retail

Leading source cities

  • New York City is the leading source city for US FDI to London, accounting for just under 25% of all US FDI to London.
  • Since 2012, FDI from NYC to London has accounted for capital investment (capex) of £3.3bn and created more than 18,700 new jobs.

Leading source cities for US FDI to London since 2012  

Source city

 Projects

Jobs
Created

Capex (£m)

Number

%

New York

525

24.8

18,784

3,312

San Francisco

182

8.6

5,741

1,376

Los Angeles

73

3.5

1,984

455

Chicago

63

3.0

2,440

859

Boston

58

2.7

1,520

284

Seattle

52

2.5

7,097

1,024

Other

1,163

55.0

42,012

11,167

Total

2,116

100

79,578

18,477

Source: fDi Markets from the Financial Times Ltd. Data as of 22 March 2023.

London is also the leading destination for FDI from New York globally, attracting more than twice as many projects as second placed Singapore (226 projects) and Paris (209 projects).

The level of demand we've seen in the first half of the year is also reflected in flight capacity data for 2023, where currently scheduled departures from North America to London are up 2% in 2023, when compared to 2019, with seat capacity on par. They, along with Africa and the Middle East, are expected to meet or exceed 2019 capacity levels this year.
RDC_Apex, July 2023