Funding and finance: taking a strategic approach
Securing funding and finance ranks alongside entering new markets and managing innovation effectively as a key priority for fast-growing, innovative businesses that ultimately want to scale.
If securing funding and finance is pivotal to your growth, our innovation and growth specialists can help you identify your funding needs and help you understand the capital options and alternative sources of investments. We can also help you identify regional and national connections to realise your ambitions.
Support to raise equity finance
Equity finance is often an appropriate way to unleash game-changing growth for innovation-focused companies. Our specialists are well equipped to help innovation-focused businesses establish an approach to investment that realises their growth potential and supports them on their journey.
Alongside tailored one-to-one support from your innovation and growth specialist, you may also be suitable to take part in our Invest-Ability investment readiness pathway. This area of support is currently being refined, and details will be shared in due course.
Post investment support
Clients who receive investment will continue receiving 1:1 post-investment support from their innovation and growth specialist. During this time, they could consider the next steps such as corporate finance and M&A. We have close relationships with partners such as the London Stock Exchange who can help accelerate their progress.
Furthermore, suitable clients may move on to the Innovate UK Business Growth Scaleup Programme for more specialised support.
Funding and finance options
We have collated a list of common funding and finance options, including grant funding or non-equity sources of finance. You may decide with your specialist’s input that grants or loans, such as Innovate UK Innovation Loans, are a more appropriate strategy, or that your appeal to investors would benefit from having secured such funds.
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"Innovate UK has been very supportive all the way through, helping review grant material and our Series A funding round, for example ... I really value the engagement and support we’ve received."
— David Newton, Chief Operating Officer, Akrivia Health
“Innovate UK is brilliant at helping us focus on where we need to be for the next stage, what the challenges are and how to overcome those challenges”
— Neil Dickinson, co-founder and chief technology officer, Holdson
Success stories
Holdson
Innovate UK EDGE’s Invest-ability programme, alongside wraparound business growth support, has helped Holdson raise £700k to grow its additive manufacturing business.
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Akrivia Health
Akrivia Health launched its new research platform for pharmaceutical companies, a subscription platform that will enable them to run complex queries on anonymised data.
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Ablatus Therapeutics
A spin-out from Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has had support from Innovate UK to pioneer a new procedure for destroying tumours without the need for invasive surgery.