Quantexa chief: No plans for US move – but I’ll do what’s best for the business
The boss of the UK’s only new unicorn Quantexa has insisted he has “no plans” to shift the firm over to the US, but said he will do whatever is best for business when mulling over whether to move its headquarters.
Speaking with City PM in an interview, Vishal Marria, who bagged a coveted billion-dollar unicorn valuation earlier in April, said the London-based firm would stay put in the capital for the the time being as its business in the US expands.
“The UK is where I chose to start my business. UK is where my HQ is, and but you know, we have a very nice balance between the US and the UK as well as many other parts of my operation,” he said.
He added that “nothing’s been in [Quantexa’s] plans” regarding a US move but he refused to commit the company to remain in the US permanently.
“Location strategy around headquarters, locations, our strategy around next steps of investments or funding or whatever it is, I always have to put Quantexa first,” he told City PM
The comments may trigger some fears among policymakers and City tech figures who have been on a charm offensive to tempt more tech firms to the capital this year.
Quantexa’s standout growth has already set it in the sights of the City’s top brass. When it marked its $129m series E funding round in April, Quantexa was invited down to close the market, but Marria refused to say whether he would return to float the firm in future.
“We keep our options all open where we take Quantexa,” he said.
Quantexa has been an outlier this year amid a drop off in venture capital funding and a sharp fall in start-up valuations.
Just $15bn was raised in the first nine months of the year, less than the first quarter of 2022 alone, according to KPMG. Quantexa is the only firm to cross the unicorn threshold this year.