NatWest’s new report on UK venture capital exits has a number in it that matters well beyond investors. Among venture-backed companies that exited, the median time from founding to exit was 7.9 years, down from 8.6 in 2025.
For banks serving venture-backed businesses, the useful question is what happens to a company’s banking needs between its first funding round and an eventual exit. That journey is long, and a company’s requirements rarely stay the same throughout.
What the report says about venture capital exits
The report’s overall message is resilience: investment remains robust, and the market is “evolving rather than retreating”. Its main concern is liquidity.
The 7.9 years is the improved figure, but the report points out that it comes at the very end of a typical fund’s life, which leaves little room to recycle the capital. It also describes the routes out as narrowing.
Only one venture-backed UK company had gone public by 10 August 2026, against 43 in 2021. Corporate acquisitions carry most of the load, with just under £4.4bn from 80 deals in the same period, compared with £8bn across 173 in all of 2025. Secondaries and continuation vehicles let managers hold their best companies for longer, though the report says only managers who can reach them benefit.
The report measures the imbalance as capital invested against exit value. To 10 August 2026, that’s £2.70 invested for every £1 of exit value across UK venture as a whole, a ratio the report says mega-rounds have lifted.
There are encouraging signs too. Listing reforms are under way, and nearly £4bn of fund closes to the same date compares with £2.5bn in 2025, which the report reads as early and tentative rather than a turn.
Two things to keep in view when reading the figure. The 7.9 years describes companies that have exited, so it doesn’t speak for the ones still private, and the average in the report’s chart is higher, at 9.7 years. The report also covers the UK market only, so any international reading is ours.
What a long private life can ask of a bank
Capital is concentrating too. The report finds £16.9bn deployed across 1,417 deals to 10 August 2026, with average deal size up from £6.7m in 2025 to £11.9m. It also finds overseas capital central to the market, especially for later-stage and growth investment: rounds backed only by UK investors make up about a third of deals but around 10% of value.
The report’s methodology note says PitchBook defined its venture growth category as companies stay private for longer. It generally covers late-stage companies at Series E or beyond.
Here’s our reading, and it’s an inference, not a finding. Overseas investment doesn’t mean a company operates abroad, and some scale-ups stay largely domestic. But for those that do enter new markets, growth can bring extra banking relationships and more demanding local account and treasury requirements.
What can strain as a company grows
Where a company does move into another jurisdiction, the pressure points will be familiar to anyone in cross-border banking, and we’ve set out five ways to measure them. Each market can bring its own due diligence and account-opening steps. Where banks work through disconnected processes, finance teams face duplication, and cash positions can take a spreadsheet and a free afternoon to reconcile.
Bigger rounds mean more cash to look after, too. It lands in one place and may spread across several markets, while the team looking after it doesn’t necessarily grow at the same pace.
However strong a bank is at home, its reach has an edge. Shared documentation and reporting across the banks involved ease the pressure, while separate processes in every market add to it.
Where one bank’s reach ends
No single bank has its own people on the ground in every market a growing company might enter. IBOS is a governed alliance of independent banks, each strong in its own market. Through the IBOS Portal, member banks can coordinate referrals and onboarding with independent banks in other jurisdictions. Shared governance and operating standards bring consistency, while each local bank stays responsible for its own regulatory obligations and banking services.
For the bank that holds the relationship, the opportunity is to stay relevant as a client’s international requirements grow, even where they reach beyond its own footprint.
What the report leaves open
The report’s focus is capital and liquidity, so the banking question is ours to ask. It describes a market where companies that do exit take close to eight years from founding to get there, and the routes out are narrowing. For banks serving scale-ups, it goes beyond geographic coverage: can their local relationships work through coordinated onboarding and reporting as a client’s needs become more complex?