The East Midlands benefited from a 25.5% increase in the investment value associated with equity deals involving smaller businesses, despite the overall number of equity deals falling by 14.9% compared to the first three quarters of 2023. Across the UK, half of the Nations and regions are seeing growth in the value of equity deals in 2024, despite challenging market conditions. However, the proportion of smaller businesses in the UK using finance declined from 50% in Q3 of 2023 to 43% in Q2 of 2024.