With software as a service (SaaS) solutions being adopted worldwide, it isn’t surprising that regional markets for such solutions have grown considerably over the past couple of years. The UK market, in particular, saw the bulk of European mergers and acquisition transactions throughout much of this year.
The most recent report from London-based investment banking firm GP Bullhound on the state of the European SaaS market for 2022 noted that the UK SaaS scene accounted for 30.4% – over a quarter – of all deals within the region. The UK market also accounts for 28.6% of all mergers and acquisitions within the sector for this year.
Germany came in a distant second with 12.7% of regional deals, and France brought in the rear at 11.9%
The GP Bullhound report also noted that 67% of all deals disclosed in the European SaaS sector since 2020 were mega deals or transactions involving amounts over €1 billion. Indeed, in this year alone, around 73% of deals within the sector fell into the mega-deal category.
Considerable Earnings
The UK was also responsible for raising 23.3% of the £15.6 billion raised by the regional SaaS sector for developmental funding in 2022.
Indeed, three of the most significant SaaS funding rounds for the year were spearheaded by British firms. These were Manchester-based customer engagement platform Connex One which raised around £93 million, remote work platform Omnipresent which raised (£90.7 million during its Series B funding round, and financial technology (Fintech) firm Modulr, which earned £83 million during its funding round.
According to Alexis Scorer, a partner at GP Bullhound, both public institutions and private corporations heightened their focus on capital-efficient growth this year, in light of recent macroeconomic activities which had an impact on public market SaaS valuation.
Scorer said that SaaS firms throughout the region have numerous reasons to be optimistic regarding their outlook for the coming year. Based on the findings of the GP Bullhound study, many European software development firms showed a great deal of resilience – a key indicator for future growth.
33% or over a third of CEOs at the head of European SaaS developers have likewise indicated that they are playing to raise additional funding in the coming year.
2022 also saw an additional 72 SaaS unicorns from Europe, a substantial increase from the 50 that popped up in 2021.
