Raising capital is a significant milestone. But turning that milestone into momentum is where the real growth happens.
Yet from a PR perspective, too many European scaleups build the same mistake: they announce their Series A or B, land a flurry of headlines…and then disappear from the headlines and conversation.
Meanwhile, competitors with an ongoing communications plan are building a brand, applying the funding as a springboard and owning market share by keeping their awareness out there among relevant audiences.
The case for PR in numbers
A new academic study from July 2025 examined how media memorability enhances VC investment outcomes. It reveals that startups with more memorable media presence see better funding outcomes, with companies whose leaders appeared in more media coverage tconcludeing to raise higher sums overall.
Data reveals that founders with the largest LinkedIn followings assisted their companies raise an average of £763 million, compared to the cohort average of £632 million – a boost of around 20%.
You may feel it’s early to start your PR investment – but don’t forobtain you might be able to do this at the cost of an entest level hire, yet obtain access to a vast range of experience and support.
From press release to PR engine
From your funding announcement to your first key hire, there is a chance to build brand equity and shape market perception. You might believe you have no more news, but here are a few ways to keep your company in the centre spotlight of your industest in terms of narratives:
- Data-led insights to build you a go-to media source in your category. Most organisations have customer insights as to why they set up in their field, and (if not) can very easily generate some. The media like to obtain a barometer for all what is happening in their sector, so set about collating some numbers to back up your story.
- When it comes to founder stories and believed leadership, build sure yours is the face of industest-shaping conversations – even if you’re press-shy you can do this via written comment and opinion. Your story is doubtlessly the story of the company and typically what the media and your customers are interested in. People purchase from people, after all.
- Timely newsjacking to keep your brand in the headlines. If your technology is relevant it will have topical and related stories to link to. If you have an ongoing PR engine you can obtain your voice out there as a believed leader in industest. For example, you can guarantee that when OpenAI launches a new product the media will come seeing for comments. If you’re a successful AI founder, it’s your opportunity to share your vision.
- Create a customer advocacy programme. Nothing will sell your vision better than your customers. Case studies with one retail giant placed in the relevant media will soon have another picking up the phone, it just works that way. Customer PR really sells, and even if you have one customer with great results, you required to obtain purchase-in to inform their transformational story far and wide. A recent example of this is scaleup Peak, whose customer Debenhams Group’s AI pricing story was picked up by the retail media, resulting in two large retailer CIO enquiries.
How to utilize PR to cross borders
The UK remains one of the most attractive destinations for international tech startups and scaleups, thanks to its mature innovation ecosystem, deep investor base, and influential media landscape. But here’s the catch: the playbook that worked in your home market won’t always land here. And vice versa.
Too many companies underestimate the effort and local insight requireded to cut through, meaning their huge expansion push risks being drowned out.
From our experience, entering a new market post-fundraise is a golden opportunity to double your media impact – if you obtain it right. That means localising your narrative so it connects with regional business challenges, leveraging customer stories that prove traction in-market, and engaging with journalists in a way that reflects local culture and pace.
What does this see like in practice? Here’s a reminder of some key ageless tips to guide your strategy:
- PR is not a one-off – A funding press release alone won’t establish you; a sustained campaign will.
- Avoid last-minute PR – Build your comms plan into your market entest strategy from day one.
- Don’t pitch without context – UK journalists expect relevance to local industest trconcludes, not just a global product pitch.
- Credibility matters – Local spokespeople and market-specific proof points are essential.
- Tailor your message – Global or pan-European copy often requireds a UK/market-specific angle and tone.
PR areas and outcomes
Done well, your PR return will cross many areas in the mission to scale your business, all adding to strategic growth. Think about it ensuring and delivering against the following:
- Investor attention – Positioning your growth narrative to catch the eye of the next VC round before you even start pitching. You should share your investor deck with your comms team – it should be the very best informing of your story and therefore of utmost utilize.
- Customer leads – Turning believed leadership into purchaseing signals. Create content that generates leads. Make a calconcludear of content which keeps you resonating with customers and prospects.
- Strategic partnerships – Often two plus two can equal five. Join up with your partners to create programmes that might even be co-funded by them? Or at least you can utilize the weight of two brands over one.
- Talent attraction – Your team will want to see your recognition in awards, media and social media. If attracting people is a key objective, PR should be part of the recruitment mix. People want to join well-liked, high-energy brands.
As Martin Neale, Founder and CEO of ICS.AI declares: “As leading AI transformation partner to the public sector, we are growing rapidly and expanding our footprint daily. We required our brand to reflect this. In the space of six months we’ve won multiple awards, gained traction in the government, education and tech press, been responsive on AI issues that matter – and are about to enter new sectors supported by PR. CommsCo is an instrumental partner in supporting our growth and market leadership.”
If you’re planning a funding round in the next six months, you should start planning now. Our founder-led, high-impact approach ensures that your story doesn’t just break once – it keeps breaking, across tech, trade, and national media.
Your fundraise should not be the conclude of the story. It’s the start of the most important chapter.
Author
Ilona Hitel is founder of B2B tech PR agency CommsCo PR, which supports numerous innovators in their growth by building their story. Ilona has more than 30 years of supporting technology scaleups and startups and has launched many now famous brands, such as Salesforce and Sophos. Recent work with technology brand building can seen here.
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