UKRI's sponsor department no longer exists

On 3 August, London chip company Olix confirmed a $312m Series B at a $3.3bn valuation. Arm and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings joined a round that prices the company before its first product ships.

Olix hired Stanford's Nick McKeown and former Wise finance chief Matt Briers after the financing to develop its forthcoming chip systems. Its first chip will reach customers in late 2027, a year after investors set this price for the company. Read full version ↓

UK Research and Innovation, Innovate UK and the Advanced Research and Invention Agency opened four programmes between 5 and 20 August. The work covers visas, a £75,000 women's innovation award, smell detection research and long-duration energy storage projects throughout Britain.

The £65m and £28m programmes commit £93m, even while departments responsible for the funder disagree over who is accountable. Read full version ↓

On 7 August, the Financial Conduct Authority moved ClearScore, Modulr, Teya, Urban Jungle and Zilch into its new Scale-up Unit. They are the Unit's first firms regulated only by the Financial Conduct Authority, placing them in its new support programme.

That week, a TechFirst apprenticeship pilot trained up to 70 young people in artificial intelligence skills across Wigan, Blackburn and Blackpool. The three Lancashire towns received the training, taking the scheme beyond London for young people seeking early careers. Read full version ↓

On 24 August, London company Prevalent AI raised its first outside capital, £16.1m, from Los Angeles-based Integrity Growth Partners. Integrity Growth Partners invested to fund United States expansion for the British cyber security company.

Prevalent AI was founded by alumni of Britain's signals intelligence agency, a notable origin for a cyber security firm. Three weeks earlier, Bank of America agreed to buy MDSec Consulting, adding to its 1,400-strong UK cyber operation. Read full version ↓

On 30 July, British Business Bank invested $25m in PhysicsX, its fourth deal from the £200m British Growth Partnership fund to date. Temasek led the round, while M&G Investments joined this latest effort to bring pension capital into venture-stage companies.

The fund lets pension schemes back growing companies without running separate due-diligence processes for each investment within their own schemes. Four deals mark a cautious start for a vehicle designed to prove the model to institutional investors. Read full version ↓

Cambridge neuroscience startup Callosum raised a $100m seed round on 20 August, an unusually large first round for a UK company. Atomico led the round, with Plural and DCVC joining a large group of first-time investors.

Founders Danyal Akarca and Jascha Achterberg also announced partnerships with chipmakers Cerebras and Rebellions to support the research. Their neuroscience-inspired approach needs specialised hardware, which many other companies in the field do not use at this scale. Read full version ↓

On 12 August, Lancaster University spinout Mindgard raised a $30m (£22.2m) Series A led by Album VC, with Karma Ventures joining. The deal included four existing backers and gave the Lancaster spinout a broad investor group.

Cytix raised €6m that week, while Aberdeen's HexSeed Technology secured more than £600,000 for diamond-coated chips for cooling data centres. All three companies began in university research, but their new money spans digital security, software and cooling hardware. Read full version ↓

On 31 July, Index Ventures raised $2bn across three funds, with $400m for seed businesses and $900m for venture deals. Its growth fund rose by $700m to $2.2bn, taking fresh capital beyond the original target for later-stage businesses.

Index now has $3.5bn available across every company stage, from first seed cheques through expansion funding. The firm disclosed the raise on its own site three days before trade outlets reported the news publicly. Read full version ↓

UK tech companies raised £102.95m across nine rounds in the week ending 21 August, down 72% from the previous week. Callosum's £73.5m round supplied most of the week's money, leaving less than £30m across eight other deals.

Those smaller rounds covered sensors, robotics and fintech, showing the range of businesses still attracting investment across the sector. Single large rounds can change a weekly total sharply, as the 21 August figures show. Read full version ↓

Britain's active business population reached a record 5.66m this month, even as the pace of new registrations slowed. Companies House recorded 402,000 registrations in the first half of 2026, down 5.7% from a year earlier.

NatWest says identity-verification reforms cut low-intent and fraudulent registrations, so the fall reflects fewer dubious or fraudulent entries. Beauhurst's figures therefore point to a cleaner count, not necessarily fewer real businesses beginning operations during 2026. Read full version ↓

On 30 July, the British Business Bank committed €65m to Highland Europe's Technology Growth Fund VI, a €1bn-plus vehicle targeting later-stage technology companies. The fund backs Series B companies approaching an initial public offering across Europe and Britain.

Highland Europe has raised €3.75bn across six funds and completed 30 exits over its 20-year investment history. Christine Hockley cited data company 9fin, where the Bank already co-invests with Highland Europe, as an existing useful precedent. Read full version ↓

Fewer than 30 staff at Plymouth marine robotics company Oshen raised £3.65m in a British round led by Lunar Ventures. AlbionVC, Twin Track and Concept Ventures joined the round, which backs production of its C-Star ocean sensors.

Oshen will triple production of wind and solar powered C-Star sensors after the investment to meet new demand. The company already sells the equipment to the Royal Navy, the US Navy and the Met Office. Read full version ↓

UK semiconductor acquisitions total six in 2026, the lowest level for five years, with no initial public offerings. Sector funding has reached $321m, already above the total recorded throughout last year for the whole sector.

Robotics funding reached $258m across 12 rounds, but Cambridge's 12 companies hold $1.3bn between them in funding. London's 103 companies share $582m across a much wider base, showing how a few big rounds can tilt the figures. Read full version ↓

On 24 August, Loughborough University launched an investor network with Haatch for spinouts seeking their earliest outside backing. The scheme links founders with alumni money at the pre-seed and seed stages, before larger investors engage.

Haatch partner Jonathan Keeling says the first cheque remains the hardest money for young founders to raise in Britain. BidScript, Moti Me and Adclear AI already use the network, giving the plan three early participants. Read full version ↓

British Business Bank gave Social Investment Scotland £3.5m on 30 July, making it its eighth accredited Community Development Finance Institution and first with a Scottish remit. The accreditation brings a Scottish lender into the Bank's regional finance network, widening access for smaller businesses across the country.

On 20 August, the Bank doubled Kettering lender Performance Finance's facility to £30m for local finance. Performance Finance funds leases and loans for dentists, vets, opticians and solicitors needing business equipment or working capital. Read full version ↓