Innovate UK has announced a new approach to support the government’s modern industrial strategy, aiming to back the nation’s most promising deep tech businesses.

With a focus on the highest potential companies and a holistic approach to tailored support, Innovate UK aims to help the next generation of tech businesses thrive.

Through the new approach, Innovate UK aims to distinguish itself as a trusted due diligence engine for the UK’s deep tech ecosystem.

Investors can be confident that when it backs a company, the hard technical work has already been done, speeding up access to capital.

“The UK has one of the strongest research bases in the world,” Tom Adeyoola, Innovate UK’s Executive Chair, said. “Yet we do not have as many globally-scaled companies to represent that strength.

“Why is that so, and what is stopping our big ideas from becoming big businesses? We excel at making discoveries, generating intellectual property, spinning out and starting up.

“Yet when it comes to scaling, too many innovative businesses fail, stall or move overseas. Innovation is in our blood – but we must focus on industrialising it, because fast-growing businesses are what drive real economic value.”

In the strategic reset, Innovate UK will focus on six priority sectors:

• advanced manufacturing
• clean energy industries
• creative industries
• defence
• life sciences
• digital and technologies

The digital and technologies sector includes six frontier technologies: AI; advanced connectivity; cybersecurity; engineering biology; semiconductors; and quantum.

Within these sectors, Innovate UK will prioritise deep tech businesses with the potential to create transformational change.

Quantum 

Quantum technologies offer a strong example of where UK companies are well placed to lead the world.

After more than a decade of sustained public investment, the UK quantum sector is world-leading.

This week the UK became the first country to commit to advanced procurement for large-scale quantum computers by the early 2030s.

The economic opportunity, in terms of growth, jobs and entirely new kinds of work, is substantial.

Specialists Teams and Services

To deliver this ambition, Innovate UK is creating specialist growth sector teams that will serve as the engines of its offer.

A new account management service, Velocity, will launch to support high-potential businesses throughout their innovation journey, from first engagement with Innovate UK through to capital raising and beyond.

Commercialism

This new approach aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovation, helping companies turn promising technologies into scalable growth.

When Innovate UK endorses a company, investors can be assured that rigorous technical due diligence has already been done, making it a trusted gateway into the UK’s deep tech ecosystem.

This will help de-risk investment decisions, crowd in private capital and change the trajectory of the UK’s most promising businesses in ways that the market alone cannot.

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Investors and Business Support

Innovate UK says it will actively prepare both sides of the investment relationship: building investment-ready businesses while briefing investors on what is coming through the pipeline.

This ensures that when a company is ready to raise investment, the right investors already know who they are and why they matter.

Innovate UK will provide an integrated, end-to-end offer built around the needs of each business, not a one-size-fits-all intervention.

Funding grants and loans will be calibrated to stage and risk, scaling from early-stage support through to increased backing as businesses prove performance.