It’s SXSW London this week, with all manner of talks and events focusing on music and tech in the UK’s capital. But a report released as it kicks off has some warnings about funding for the UK’s music-tech scene.
Trade association Music Technology UK (MTUK) claims that this funding peaked at £183m in 2021, but has since fallen steadily, reaching just £68.8m in 2025. Over the same period, MTUK reckons that overall UK tech funding has only fallen by 4.4%.
What’s going on here? The report suggests that while investment in seed-stage music-tech firms has grown from £8.4m in 2020 to £22.1m in 2025, funding for growth-stage companies has “collapsed” from £101m to £10m.
The report also tracks a decline in the number of new music-tech companies being launched – 66 in 2023 but only 28 in 2025 – and also a shrinkage in the amount of grant funding for the sector.
It also reveals that 72% of acquisitions of UK music-tech companies “happen at either seed or established stage – before companies have had the opportunity to scale on their own terms”.
The report offers some ideas for what the government can do to turn these trends around. You can read it in full here.
