Forget Brexit. U.K. remains atop European VC activity.

Forget concerns about Brexit. Although some feared that the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union would cause startups to flee to other entrepreneurial friendly nations, the appetite for U.K.-based startups has grown in recent years.

In 2018, worldwide venture firms invested more than $12.5 billion in 1,042 European companies, according to VCJ‘s analysis of preliminary data from Thomson Reuters. A total of 497 U.K. companies (47 percent) received more than $6.8 billion of the total, or 54 percent of the European allotment.

What’s more, the U.K.’s share of the venture community in Europe has steadily increased in recent years.

In 2015, the year before Britain’s referendum vote to leave the EU, the U.K. accounted for 19 percent of the companies and 24 percent of the dollars. In 2017, 400 U.K. companies, or 27 percent of the 1,469 total across Europe, raised more than $6.8 billion, or 41 percent of the $16.7 billion total.

An October KPMG report said that although Brexit posed a question mark for investors, “it is reassuring to see that concerns about Brexit have had little impact on the appetite for good quality U.K. enterprises.”

KPMG said the U.K. market has advantages over other European nations, even in the shadow of Brexit, with its access to talent, proximity to universities, status as a global financial center and concentration of investors.

Uncertainty about Brexit remains, with Britain due to leave the EU March 29. But British parliamentary members are set to discuss Prime Minister Theresa May’s latest Brexit deal the week of Jan. 14.

Top VC-backed European deals (2018)

Source: Thomson Reuters