The article is a case study in playing with statistics to give the message you want. A different, and simpler, way of saying the same headline is that it’s much harder for ideas to get investment in the UK.

While the “unicorns per dollar invested” stat looks good the “good ideas killed off because someone didn’t invest” stat looks really bad.

The US market doesn’t pride itself purely on unicorns created, but on the fact that it’s a vibrant ecosystem that invests in ideas even if they might not become a unicorn. That fact seems lost on the meaning of the headline.