1. High net worth angels can invest up to £100,000 into a startup and the UK government will offer capital protection of up to 86.5%.
86.5%! Startups can take £150,000 that way, then there is another scheme that allows them to take up to £5,000,000 and the UK government offers up to 61.5% capital protection. Crazy. If you look at pre-money valuations in this light for angel-funded rounds, UK startups tend to raise at a 10-20x lower valuation than Silicon Valley startups..
2. Startups that make money of their patents only need to pay 10% tax on that money
3. Companies can get back 25% of their R&D costs from the government
4. Government grants of up to £250,000 (matched funding) for proof of concept, development of prototype etc on original, innovative products
If you had the above in the US, things would be far, far crazier than they are now.
That about half of European venture capital funds are from local governments despite tailwinds like this certainly points to a deeper cultural issue.