ukfunding.ioAN ATLAS OF BRITISH FUNDING
INNOVATE UK SMART GRANTOPENARIA · MATHS FOR SAFE AI£59M POOLARIA · SMARTER ROBOT BODIES£57M POOLBBB START UP LOAN£25K @ 6%SEIS RELIEF50% INC TAXEIS RELIEF30% INC TAXVCT RELIEF30% INC TAXEF UK14 INTAKE£100K · 8%YC W26 BATCH$500K · 7%ANTLER LONDONROLLINGBBB EQUITY DEPLOYED Q1−4.2% YoYR&D MERGED CREDIT16.2% RATER&D ERIS (R&D-INTENSIVE)~27% RATEESA BIC UK INTAKEOPENUKI2S SPACE FUNDROLLINGCROWDCUBE LIVE£150K–£5M+BRIDGE AI COMPETITION£35M POOLFUTURE FUND BREAKTHROUGHPAUSEDNIHR I4I AWARDSROLLINGSCOTTISH EDGE R28APR 2026INNOVATE UK SMART GRANTOPENARIA · MATHS FOR SAFE AI£59M POOLARIA · SMARTER ROBOT BODIES£57M POOLBBB START UP LOAN£25K @ 6%SEIS RELIEF50% INC TAXEIS RELIEF30% INC TAXVCT RELIEF30% INC TAXEF UK14 INTAKE£100K · 8%YC W26 BATCH$500K · 7%ANTLER LONDONROLLINGBBB EQUITY DEPLOYED Q1−4.2% YoYR&D MERGED CREDIT16.2% RATER&D ERIS (R&D-INTENSIVE)~27% RATEESA BIC UK INTAKEOPENUKI2S SPACE FUNDROLLINGCROWDCUBE LIVE£150K–£5M+BRIDGE AI COMPETITION£35M POOLFUTURE FUND BREAKTHROUGHPAUSEDNIHR I4I AWARDSROLLINGSCOTTISH EDGE R28APR 2026INNOVATE UK SMART GRANTOPENARIA · MATHS FOR SAFE AI£59M POOLARIA · SMARTER ROBOT BODIES£57M POOLBBB START UP LOAN£25K @ 6%SEIS RELIEF50% INC TAXEIS RELIEF30% INC TAXVCT RELIEF30% INC TAXEF UK14 INTAKE£100K · 8%YC W26 BATCH$500K · 7%ANTLER LONDONROLLINGBBB EQUITY DEPLOYED Q1−4.2% YoYR&D MERGED CREDIT16.2% RATER&D ERIS (R&D-INTENSIVE)~27% RATEESA BIC UK INTAKEOPENUKI2S SPACE FUNDROLLINGCROWDCUBE LIVE£150K–£5M+BRIDGE AI COMPETITION£35M POOLFUTURE FUND BREAKTHROUGHPAUSEDNIHR I4I AWARDSROLLINGSCOTTISH EDGE R28APR 2026

Every pound, mapped.

LIVE · UPDATED JUN 202658 SCHEMES TRACKED

The capital infrastructure of British innovation, mapped.

58+ schemes. 9 regions. £2.8 billion deployable this fiscal year. Every grant, equity scheme, ARIA programme, accelerator, VC, loan and tax credit available to UK founders — sorted by stage, sector and geography.

Find your match See the stack

What the funding data actually says.

Three uncomfortable truths the launch announcements rarely make. Each links to a UK government source.

73%

of UK equity capital lands in the Greater South East.

London, Cambridge and Oxford absorb the lion's share of venture funding by value, despite hosting roughly 30% of high-growth firms. Regional schemes — NPIF II, MEIF, Scottish National Investment Bank — exist explicitly to close this gap.1

86days

median wait between R&D credit submission and HMRC payout.

Plan working capital accordingly. The SME scheme's effective rate (post-April 2024 merger) lands near 16.2%, with up to 27% available for “R&D-intensive” loss-makers.2

1in9

Innovate UK Smart Grant applications are funded.

Success rates hover around 11% — competitive but not lottery-grade. Quality of writing is the most-cited differentiator. Apply early in a competition cycle, not at the deadline.3

1British Business Bank, Small Business Equity Tracker 2025. 2HMRC, R&D Tax Credits Statistics 2024. 3UKRI, Innovate UK Smart Grants Performance 2023–25. Figures rounded; full sources listed in footer.

Three questions. A shortlist worth opening.

Most founders waste weeks reading scheme criteria they were never going to qualify for. Filter by what you actually have: a stage, a sector, and a number.

QUESTION 01 / 03

What stage is the company at?

— SCHEMES
SHORTLIST
Pick the three answers — your shortlist will appear here.

Reach growth round in 5 funded steps.

UK founders rarely fund a company in one transaction. They stack: a grant pays for the prototype, SEIS pays for the team, EIS pays for the seed, and growth equity follows the traction. Here’s how it actually fits together.

STEP 01 — VALIDATE
Idea & prototype
£0 – £100K · grant + talent
  • Innovate UK Smart Grant (proof-of-concept)
  • ICURe Programme · Conception X
  • Entrepreneur First · Antler · YC
  • University spin-out funds
STEP 02 — INCORPORATE
Pre-seed
£100K – £500K · SEIS + angels
  • SEIS round (50% income tax relief)
  • Concept · Ada · Air Street · Seedcamp
  • UKBAA & Cambridge Angels
  • Start Up Loans (BBB) · ≤ £25K
STEP 03 — BUILD
Seed
£500K – £3M · EIS + seed VCs
  • EIS round (30% relief) + VCT
  • LocalGlobe · Hoxton · Octopus · Plural
  • Innovate UK Smart Grant (full)
  • NPIF II · MEIF · Crowdcube · Seedrs
STEP 04 — SCALE
Series A
£3M – £15M · institutional VC
  • Balderton · Northzone · Dawn · Octopus
  • British Patient Capital co-invest
  • ARIA programme contracts (deeptech)
  • Future Fund: Breakthrough · UKI2S
STEP 05 — GROW
Series B+
£15M – £50M+ · growth equity
  • Index · Atomico · Accel · Northzone
  • Mansion House pension capital
  • NSSIF (defence-adjacent)
  • Pre-IPO syndicates · sovereign funds

Read horizontally. The bar widths show the upper bound of what’s commonly raised at each step (log-scaled). Tax-relief schemes (SEIS/EIS) are stackable with grants and equity rounds, not alternatives to them.

Where the policy money is, by sector.

UK industrial strategy concentrates non-dilutive capital into a handful of frontier areas. These are the six with the most distinct, named funding pathways.

01
PRIORITY

Artificial Intelligence

From frontier model labs to applied vertical AI. Backed by Innovate UK BridgeAI, ARIA's Mathematics for Safe AI programme, and dedicated VCs like Air Street and Plural.

£100K – £25M
Typical Range
UKRI · ARIA
Lead Funders
02
PRIORITY

Robotics & Automation

Made Smarter Innovation, ARIA's Smarter Robot Bodies and Robot Dexterity programmes, and the Robotics Growth Partnership.

£50K – £10M
Typical Range
Innovate UK
Lead Funders
03

Healthtech

NIHR i4i, SBRI Healthcare and the AI in Health & Care Award fund clinical software, diagnostics and digital therapeutics.

£25K – £20M
Typical Range
NIHR · NHSX
Lead Funders
04

Medtech

Devices, implantables and clinical-stage therapeutics. Grants run to £50M+ for late-stage trials via Biomedical Catalyst and Innovation Loans.

£100K – £50M
Typical Range
Innovate UK · MRC
Lead Funders
05
PRIORITY

Space Technology

UKSA grants, ESA BIC UK incubation, and the UKI2S Seed Fund for upstream and downstream space ventures.

£100K – £5M
Typical Range
UKSA · ESA
Lead Funders
06
PRIORITY

Defence & Dual-Use

MOD's UK Defence Innovation (formerly DASA) funds TRL 2–6 work in autonomy, counter-UAS, AI/security and aviation. Innovate UK runs periodic dual-use programmes alongside; NSSIF backs defence-adjacent equity.

£50K – £10M
Typical Range
MOD/UKDI · Innovate UK
Lead Funders

The map is not flat. Where you incorporate matters.

Every devolved nation runs its own equity funds and grant programmes. England’s regional engines (NPIF II, MEIF, BBB) plug remaining gaps. Click a region.

SCOTLANDN. IRELANDNORTH ENG.WALESMIDLANDSEASTSOUTH WESTSOUTH EASTLONDON
— SELECT A REGION —

Click a region on the map.

Default state · national schemes

  • Innovate UK Smart Grants
    National · all regions eligible
    £25K–£500K
  • British Business Bank Start Up Loans
    National · personal liability
    ≤ £25K
  • SEIS / EIS
    National · investor relief
    £250K / £12M
  • R&D Tax Credit (HMRC)
    National · merged scheme
    ~16–27%

Where the institutional money sits.

A directory of UK-active venture funds, accelerators, angel networks, and crowdfunding platforms. Curated by stage and ticket size. No affiliate relationships, no pay-to-list.

COLUMN A

Lead VCs

Series A onwards · 6 firms
Index Ventures£3M–£50M
Pan-European, top-tier. Series A through growth.
Atomico£5M–£25M
Founded by Niklas Zennström. European tech, Series A–C.
Balderton Capital£1M–£20M
Seed through Series B. Long-standing London fund.
Accel London£3M–£30M
Bay Area DNA, London office. Series A specialist.
Northzone£3M–£25M
Nordic-UK fund. Backed Spotify, Klarna, Personio.
Dawn Capital£5M–£25M
B2B SaaS specialist. Series A–B.
COLUMN B

Seed & Early-Stage

Pre-seed → Seed · 8 firms
LocalGlobe / Phoenix Court£150K–£2M
Saul & Robin Klein. Top UK pre-seed/seed fund.
Hoxton Ventures£500K–£3M
First-cheque specialists. Backed Deliveroo, Babylon.
Seedcamp£100K–£500K
Pre-seed/seed. Strong founder community network.
Octopus Ventures£1M–£10M
Seed–A across health, fintech, deeptech, B2B.
Plural Platform€1M–€10M
Hogarth, Klein, Cossart, Khosrowshahi. Mission-led.
Air Street Capital£150K–£1M
AI-first. Nathan Benaich. Pre-seed/seed.
Ada Ventures£100K–£800K
Backs overlooked founders. Pre-seed.
Concept Ventures£200K–£1M
UK's largest dedicated pre-seed fund.
COLUMN C

Accelerators

Programmes & talent · 8 tracked
Entrepreneur First£100K · 8%
6-month talent programme. Pre-team founders.
Y Combinator$500K · 7%
Quarterly batches. UK companies eligible.
Antler London£85K · 8%
Pre-team to incorporation in 6 months.
Techstars London$120K · 6%
13-week intensive. Mentor-driven.
Founders Factory£30K–£250K
6-month, corporate-backed verticals.
Conception XEquity-free
9-month deeptech programme for PhD founders.
Zinc VC£20K + 4%
Mission-led. Health, ageing, climate.
Deep Science VenturesVenture-build
Forms PhD-level deeptech ventures problem-up.
COLUMN D

Angels & Crowd

Networks & platforms · 8 tracked
UK Business Angels Assoc.Trade body
UKBAA — umbrella for ~17,000 active UK angels.
Cambridge Angels£50K–£1M
Cambridge cluster. Deeptech and health weighted.
London Business Angels£100K–£500K
LBA. Pan-sector. Monthly investor evenings.
Angel CoFund£100K–£1M
BBB-backed co-invest with angel-led syndicates.
Crowdcube£150K–£5M+
Equity crowdfunding. SEIS/EIS eligible.
Republic Europe (Seedrs)£150K–£10M
Equity crowdfunding. Now part of Republic.
SyndicateRoom£25K min
Tax-efficient angel co-invest fund.
Envestors£100K–£2M
FCA-authorised investor network platform.
THE INDIRECT PATH

How institutional capital actually reaches founders.

British Patient Capital (a BBB subsidiary) and the wider British Business Bank don’t write cheques to founders. They commit to and co-invest alongside UK venture and growth-equity managers — Balderton, Northzone, Octopus, Plural and others in the atlas above — who then back companies on their normal terms. The BPC stamp is what makes those funds bigger and more patient than they would otherwise be.

The Mansion House Accord (2023) and Mansion House Compact (2024–25) extend the same logic to UK pension capital: DC schemes have publicly committed a share of assets to UK private markets, routed via fund managers (including the British Growth Partnership) rather than directly. Founders don’t apply to Mansion House — they raise from a fund that has Mansion House money inside it.

Practical implication for founders: when a UK VC tells you its LP base includes BBB / BPC / Mansion House signatories, that’s typically a positive signal on fund stability and follow-on capacity — not a separate channel you can apply to.

STATE-BACKED · FRONTIER R&D
ARIA

The British DARPA. £800m+ over five years on high-risk, high-reward science.

Advanced Research + Invention Agency. Spun out of UKRI in 2023, ARIA backs frontier research that traditional grant bodies won’t touch. Programmes are problem-led, multi-year, and cross-institutional — funding small teams of researchers in adjacent fields towards a single ambitious goal.

Funding is structured as programme contracts, not grants. Eligibility is broad: universities, startups, individuals. Total deployable across opportunity spaces is currently £800m+ over the parliament term, with individual programmes ranging from £15M to £80M over multi-year periods.

Mathematics for Safe AI
~£59M · 4 yrs
Scalable Neural Interfaces
~£69M · 5 yrs
Programmable Plants
~£62M · 6 yrs
Smarter Robot Bodies
~£57M · 4 yrs
Nature Computes Better
~£42M · 4 yrs
Forecasting Tipping Points
~£81M · 5 yrs
Robot Dexterity
~£55M · 5 yrs
Scoping Mineral Future
~£15M · scoping

Tickets shown are typical ranges, not floors or ceilings. Crowdfunding rounds are net of platform fees (typically 7%). ARIA programme budgets per aria.org.uk opportunity-space announcements; total deployment depends on contract awards.

Live opportunities. No login.

A maintained shortlist of currently open schemes. Sort by amount or deadline. Filter by type. The full database is in the newsletter.

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R&D credit, back-of-envelope.

Estimate what HMRC’s merged scheme returns on qualifying expenditure. Loss-making R&D-intensive SMEs can claim under ERIS for a higher effective rate.

Inputs

Use qualifying R&D expenditure (staff costs, software, subcontractor costs at 65%, consumables, etc.). Round figures are fine for a back-of-envelope.

£
Estimated Net Benefit
£75,000
Effective rate: 15% · Merged scheme · profit-making
Qualifying expenditure£500,000
Above-the-line credit£100,000
Less corp. tax (25%)−£25,000
Net benefit£75,000

Indicative only. Always confirm with a qualified R&D tax adviser. Rates per HMRC rules from 1 April 2024.

Founder questions, plainly answered.

The things people actually ask before applying. Not financial advice.

SEIS (Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme) gives the investor 50% income tax relief on up to £200,000 per company per tax year; the company can raise up to £250,000 lifetime under SEIS. EIS (Enterprise Investment Scheme) gives investors 30% income tax relief on up to £1m per year (£2m if into knowledge-intensive companies); the company can raise up to £12m lifetime (£20m for KIC). SEIS is for very early-stage; EIS is for slightly later. Both are stackable with grants and R&D credits.

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