AI reduces founders’ need for capital, says Revolut Business
AI is reducing the amount of capital startups need to build global businesses, shifting the battle for founders away from funding and towards which countries offer the best environment to scale, according to the head of Revolut Business.
Speaking to City PM, James Gibson said AI had dramatically lowered the cost of building and operating companies, weakening one of Silicon Valley’s biggest historic advantages over Britain.
Gibson said: “Funding alone is only one part of the equation”, adding, “founders don’t just look for capital anymore; they look for an environment that accelerates growth”.
Meanwhile, the UK government has been pushing to persuade more high-growth firms to start, scale and stay in Britain, with £500m of new support for innovative businesses, and a visa reimbursement scheme worth up to £25,000 a year for qualifying scale-ups hiring overseas talent.
The Entrepreneurs Network published research last week finding that while 65 per cent of founders believe the UK is an easy place to start a business, only 14 per cent think it is an easy place to scale. The report also noted that three-quarters said raising investment remained difficult. Still, founders ranked tax and regulation ahead of access to capital when asked what most signals a country is serious about entrepreneurship.
Gibson said that AI has begun changing that argument: “AI has dramatically reduced the cost of operating and scaling a new business. Solo founders can streamline operations that previously required extensive, specialist teams.”
Rather than eliminating the need for funding, Gibson said investment is increasingly being directed towards areas AI cannot replace, including regulatory compliance, cyber security, staff training and international expansion.
“The US offers incredibly compelling markets and opportunities for ambitious founders,” he said. “However, this isn’t a one-way street anymore. London and the wider UK ecosystem are stepping up, modernising regulation and unlocking new capital to ensure high-growth businesses can thrive right here.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also told City PM during London Tech Week that political uncertainty in the US was already driving founders and investors towards the capital. “America doesn’t have what we’ve got,” Khan said, pointing to London’s international talent pool, financial ecosystem and cultural appeal.
The Mayor added that talent was increasingly mobile and that London’s ability to attract founders would depend on maintaining an immigration system capable of competing with cities such as New York and San Francisco.
Helping UK firms scale
“The true barrier isn’t a lack of domestic potential, but safely managing the leap to a global stage,” said Gibson. “Fragmented international regulation is slow, and volatile FX markets can quietly drain margins.”
That reflects a broader shift in how founders think about scaling. While venture capital remains critical, Britain’s tech sector has increasingly pointed to practical barriers such as regulation or hiring overseas workers as constraints on growth.
Alongside new funding programmes, the government recently launched a visa reimbursement scheme covering up to £25,000 of immigration costs for qualifying scale-ups in digital technology, life sciences and clean energy, following longstanding complaints that Britain’s visa system is too expensive and unpredictable for fast-growing businesses.
But Gibson argues AI is lowering one of the biggest barriers to starting a company by allowing founders to build products with far smaller teams and lower upfront costs than would have been possible just a few years ago.
Coding assistants, AI agents and automated customer support tools are enabling startups to launch products, test ideas and serve customers without hiring large engineering or operations teams.
That is beginning to reshape venture capital, with investors increasingly backing businesses that can reach meaningful revenues with fewer employees and less capital. A recent study of US venture-backed startups found AI-native companies employ around 25 per cent fewer people than comparable firms while achieving similar valuations.
“AI can democratise execution. It cannot democratise entrepreneurship and innovation,” he said.
As the cost of building software falls, he said, competitive advantage is shifting away from writing code and towards identifying customer demand, navigating regulation and expanding internationally. “When the barrier to building falls, the market becomes more competitive,” he said. “Advantage has shifted from the speed at which you build back to what and who you build for.”
This comes as McKinsey estimated that generative AI could ultimately add $4.4tn in annual productivity across the global economy, while AI-first companies are increasingly being judged on revenue per employee and speed of execution rather than headcount growth.