Having lived in the UK for a year, I can completely attest to the sentiment. The lack of seed funding appeared largely cultural to me: many of the angels I interacted with were risk-averse and old-fashioned, looking at rubber-stamps and degrees rather than actual merit. It seemed impossible to get funding as a young entrepreneur (under 25), given the heavy emphasis on traditional industry experience. From talking to other entrepreneurs, there was no tolerance for failure as there is in the Valley, and an utter focus on IRR and incremental businesses with short-term returns, rather than more risky bets with longer time-horizons.