Venture capitalists invested more than $675 billion in start-ups worldwide in 2021, doubling 2020’s previous all-time high, according to data published Thursday by VC analysis firm Dealroom and British promo agency London & Partners.

Despite the epidemic, there was still a steady rise in “unicorns”, with 133 San Francisco Bay Area start-ups seeing their valuations reach over $1B.

The surge in the number of unicorns was complimented by the number of megarounds — start-up funding rounds over $100 million.

Some cities saw a dramatic increase in these megarounds, London being the most notable with a staggering 3.4 times increase. Dealroom reports that there were 64 megarounds last year in London, up from 19. Revolut was able to raise $800m in its series E round while Monzo, another fintech company, raised more than $600m across two deals. Hopin also raised $850 million through two deals, in 2021.

Start-ups in U.K. capital have raised $25.5 Billion from VCs last fiscal year. That’s an increase of $11.2 billion in 2020. In London alone, there are 75 unicorns. The latest additions to the list include Marshmallow and Starling Bank, a mobile banking app.

Laura Citron, CEO of London & Partners, said in a statement that London is now a truly mature global technology capital.

She said that there are large pools of funding for later stages, almost two new unicorn businesses every month and huge funding rounds. This data shows London’s potential to be a great place to launch businesses and grow those businesses to global levels.

New funds of $9.9B were raised by VC firms in London in 2021, European VC funds account for 35%. Balderton Capital, Index Ventures and 83North closed large new funds while well-known U.S. VC companies such as Lightspeed and General Catalyst opened offices in the area.

London and Europe are yet to see any large-scale tech companies. Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, MetaOr MicrosoftIn the U.S. Alibaba TencentChina

Europe’s largest tech firm according to market value is chip manufacturing machine maker ASMLIt is estimated that it has a value of more than $300 billion. In the United States, however, many companies have a value of over $1 trillion. Apple briefly saw its market cap climb to over $3 trillionI did so earlier this month. Many of Europe’s promising tech companies have been acquired by both the U.S.-based and Asian tech giants. These include DeepMind, an artificial intelligence laboratory, and Arm, a chip designer.

In 2021, venture capitalists invested $328.8 million in U.S. startups and $61.8 million into Chinese start ups. U.K. start-ups. However, VC investments in Europe and the U.K. are growing at a faster rate than in China and the U.S.

Some of London’s top-known start ups are food delivery firms. DeliverooSecurity start-ups DarktraceIn 2021,, was listed on the London Stock Exchange. However, investors were not all impressed and they went public alongside many other European start-ups, including SpotifyStill, you can list in New York.

CNBC heard from Nazim Salur (co-founder, CEO, and chief executive officer of Getir’s rapid grocery delivery app) that Europe didn’t treat technology companies the same way as the U.S.

“There’s just too much skeptical.” [in Europe]He said that it was from policymakers and investors. He mentioned Getir. most recently valued at $7.5 billionIf the company were to become public, they would list most likely in the United States. The company is currently in discussions with investors to raise private capital. This would bring the value of its business to more than $12 billion. according to Bloomberg.

Salur explained that Europe does have a strong economy and it is powerful in the automotive, fashion, and pharmaceutical industries. But it lacks power when it comes down to starting up.

There are many good start-ups. If you take a look at the number of unicorns, for instance, approximately 800 are American and one third is Chinese. All the rest are from the rest of the globe. Unfortunately, Europe isn’t represented in the way it ought to be.