Four of the top 10 universities in the world are based in the United Kingdom. Four. Those universities alone (Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, UCL) contribute roughly £56 billion to the UK economy.

Not only are they a net benefit for British society, but they are a benefit to global society. These four universities alone have given us Oxford Nanopore Technologies, ARM, Darktrace, Onfido, Faculty, DeepMind, just to name a few. There are even more if we widen the net: Graphcore and PsiQuantum both came from Bristol; Skyscanner came from Manchester; Trogenix from Edinburgh.

To ignore or play down the role that the UK's higher education plays in educating and incubating the companies and leaders of tomorrow (and of yesterday) does the country a disservice and borders on wilful ignorance.

I know that there is a strong view held by people living outside our capital that the UK is too London-centric. Whilst I do agree, I firmly believe that London is the greatest city on the planet. Yes, it's expensive, and yes, the tubes are hot, but the fact is that London remains the global hub through which capital moves.

More than £3 trillion flows daily through London markets: more than New York, Singapore, and Hong Kong combined, and the city accounts for 38% of global Forex trades. If we look at this through a venture lens, London-based start-ups raised £7.2 billion in Q1 of this year. This puts the city at 8th globally in terms of capital raised, but No. 1 within Europe. London is also a key player in the insurance market, with the city representing 43% of the global market for speciality risk classes.

Beyond the sheer amount of capital available, London is home to some of the hottest global start-ups at all ends of the growth spectrum. The likes of Revolut, Octopus Energy, Synthesia, ElevenLabs, and Wayve are all based in London and have received some form of venture funding from within the UK. You don't become the home to 52 unicorns (companies with a valuation of £1bn+) by chance.

The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) give retail investors the chance to get early access to the Revoluts of tomorrow. Whilst they do continually attract millions' worth of investment, there is still work to be done about educating the general public as to their existence.

The issue is not the lack of pathways into venture investing, it's more about changing the risk-averse psyche of the nation. We are a country of savers, not a country of investors. Traditional financial literacy teaches people to pack cash into their ISA, which traditionally returns 3-4% a year, or 6% a year for a Stocks and Shares ISA. Compared to the potential returns from an EIS Fund investment, this is tiny. The success of the UK venture ecosystem so far has come despite the headwinds; imagine what they could do if more people knew how to support them.

The United Kingdom is not by any means perfect. Taxes are rising, household bills are going up, and we are in the midst of a drought despite being an island nation.

However, to present our country as a bad place to invest your capital is simply wrong. We are not, and we are never going to be, the USA, and that is no bad thing. What we are is a nation of hard workers who have continually punched above our weight. We have the best global talent, the financial capital of the world, and the mechanics necessary to encourage public and private investment. What we need now is conviction. Brits love to be self-deprecating, but it's time that we stood tall and started shouting about our successes.

If you've got this far, firstly, well done, but secondly, we here at Love Ventures are proud to be part of a group of fund managers bringing early-stage investing to the masses. If you want to learn more, get in touch.

Photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash