Stryker agreed on 12 October to put about $400m into CMR Surgical and will receive an exclusive option to buy the whole Cambridge robot maker. American, Dutch and Danish investors co-led OMass Therapeutics' $310m round, while the British Business Bank wrote £180m into six AI funds and took minority stakes. Third-quarter venture investment came in at $6.1bn on Dealroom data, below the roughly $8.5bn a quarter that Dealroom's $34.2bn full-year forecast implied.
Britain's state funded its tech firms in October; foreign investors set the terms on its biggest private rounds.
Stryker is putting about $400m of preferred equity into Cambridge's CMR Surgical and taking an exclusive option to buy the whole company.
Stryker agreed on 12 October to invest about $400m in CMR Surgical, the Cambridge company behind the Versius surgical robot. It also holds an exclusive option to buy all of it.
Neither side has published a price or timetable for that option. Stryker will sell Versius in the US, and its Medsurg chief Andy Pierce was named to join the CMR Surgical board.
Bain Capital Life Sciences, Forbion and Novo Holdings co-led a $310m Series C for the Oxford spinout, taking its lead drug into Phase 2.
OMass Therapeutics, spun out of the University of Oxford, closed a $310m Series C in mid-October. Bain Capital Life Sciences, Forbion and Novo Holdings led it.
The cash takes OMS1620 into Phase 2 trials for two hormone disorders. Syncona committed £10.1m, and the British Business Bank also followed on as an existing shareholder.
The Bank committed £180m on 15 October to six AI and deep-tech venture funds, three of them with mandates that run wider than Britain.
The British Business Bank committed £180m on 15 October to six AI and deep-tech venture funds. Intrepid Growth Partners took the largest share, £55m.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds called it backing for AI makers. The release sets no rule that the money reach British firms, and three of the funds invest beyond Britain.
Third Point led $3.36bn of convertible notes that turn into Nscale shares at its IPO, with $1bn of it due from Nvidia in mid-November.
Nscale, the London AI infrastructure company, secured $3.36bn of convertible notes on 25 September. Third Point led, and Nvidia committed $1bn due in mid-November.
The notes turn into shares at a discount when Nscale lists in New York. On 28 September a special-purpose vehicle selling exposure to Nscale filed a private-sale notice with US regulators.
UK Research and Innovation split £50m between six quantum sensing companies; eight days later the Public Accounts Committee told it to start taking stakes.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) shared £50m on 13 October among six quantum sensing and navigation companies, from Wales to Nottingham. It published no per-company amounts.
On 21 October the Public Accounts Committee urged UKRI to take equity or IP rights in firms it funds. Research-council-linked spinouts fell to 85 in 2024 from 173 in 2020.
The Sussex spinout's Series A of more than $100m is the largest by a UK-headquartered quantum company, and its first new site will be in Singapore.
Universal Quantum, a University of Sussex spinout, raised more than $100m around 8 October. DCVC and London's Firgun Ventures co-led the Series A, a UK quantum record.
Singapore's EDBI joined the round. The company will open a research centre in Singapore first, ahead of new sites in the US and Japan.
The Oxford optical-switch maker's Series B, led by Bullhound Capital, put two rival American chipmakers and a £10m British Business Bank stake on its register.
Salience Labs, an Oxford and Münster spinout, raised a $125m Series B on 14 October. Bullhound Capital led, with AMD Ventures and Intel Capital among new investors.
The British Business Bank took a £10m direct stake. The optical-switch maker will spend the money on volume manufacturing and an office in Silicon Valley.
HSBC Innovation Banking's count on Dealroom data put the third quarter at $6.1bn, short of the run rate Dealroom projected in July.
HSBC Innovation Banking, using Dealroom data, said UK startups raised $6.1bn in the third quarter. Crunchbase put the same period at $7.5bn.
CityFibre's $1.2bn round supplied about a fifth of the Dealroom figure. UK venture firms also raised a record $6.9bn for new funds, about half of it by Index Ventures.
The Council for Science and Technology warned the UK risks becoming a high-value AI customer and asked for one accountable owner of sovereignty choices.
The Council for Science and Technology asked AI minister Kanishka Narayan for a UK AI Sovereignty Plan. Its letter, dated 30 July, appeared on gov.uk on 19 October.
The advisers want one accountable owner for decisions on what Britain owns, shares or buys. They also back an Alan Turing Institute plan for an open-source base model.
Provisional HMRC figures for 2024-25 show about 8,000 fewer R&D claims but £8.2bn of relief, more of it flowing to fewer, larger claimants.
United KingdomProvisional figures from HM Revenue and Customs, published on 29 September, show R&D tax credit claims fell 17% in 2024-25. Total relief still rose 5% to £8.2bn.
Small-company relief fell 29% while the merged large-company credit grew. Six per cent of claims took 69% of the value, ahead of the Budget on 28 October.
The African mobile-money arm of Airtel Africa began conditional dealing at 196p a share on 9 October and slipped to 194p within the hour.
United KingdomAirtel Money, the mobile-money arm of Airtel Africa, began conditional dealing in London on 9 October. Its 196p offer price valued the business at £5.3bn.
The shares slipped to 194p within an hour. Airtel Money has no British operating business, while London-based Nscale is heading to New York.
The Prime Minister told a Manchester summit that established English mayors will get later-stage innovation funding, though the devolved fund starts only in 2028.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham told a Manchester summit on 9 October that established English mayors will get later-stage innovation funding. The Local Innovation Partnerships Fund devolves to them from 2028.
UK Research and Innovation will pay out a separate £1bn over four years for innovation clusters. A new No.10 North unit will build cluster partnerships, starting with a north-to-Oxford-Cambridge link.
The Cambridge microbiome company's first close puts its MB310 treatment on course for Phase 2 trials in ulcerative colitis.
Microbiotica, based in Cambridge, reported the first close of a £36m Series C in mid-October. The British Business Bank led it.
The company says the money will take MB310, its microbiome treatment, into Phase 2 trials for ulcerative colitis. The state bank more often follows private investors than leads them.
Defence minister Lord Coaker released £84m for Team Plymouth on 23 September, confirming a National Centre for Marine Autonomy.
Defence minister Lord Coaker approved Team Plymouth's business case on 23 September, releasing an £84m Defence Growth Deal. Government supplies £50m of it.
The deal confirms a National Centre for Marine Autonomy with Babcock as a founding partner. The Ministry of Defence expects 120 jobs and more than 30 businesses, start-ups among them.
A Companies House notice filed on 25 September confirms administrators were appointed to the Devon arm of the American Cambium group.
Administrators were appointed to Cambium Networks Ltd, the Devon arm of the American Cambium group, on 14 September. An AM01 notice filed at Companies House on 25 September records the appointment.
The filing follows a notice of intention lodged on 10 September. It confirms the company's move into formal administration.
Basecamp Research's £105.6m Series C topped a run of rounds that reached Cardiff, St Helens and Belfast, with TrueLayer backed by Italy's state lender.
Basecamp Research closed a £105.6m Series C in late September for six drug programmes. TrueLayer raised £20.4m led by Italy's CDP Venture Capital.
Reclinker raised £10m to recycle cement in Cardiff, and Inovus Medical of St Helens raised $9.3m, taking total funding to $20m. Belfast's CATAGEN secured UK Export Finance-backed money for aviation fuel units.
Direction: up, towards more foreign control of British flagships, with three dated tests. Stryker decides when to exercise its option over CMR Surgical once regulatory approvals the announcement does not list are cleared, and its investment is due to complete by 31 December. Nvidia's $1bn Nscale tranche is expected in mid-November, ahead of a New York float with no price range on EDGAR by 22 October. The 28 October Budget, where Chancellor John Healey has ruled out a capital gains rise according to Startup Coalition, is the next point at which founder taxes or R&D relief could change. A Bank-led round of CMR Surgical's size, or a UKRI move to take equity, would turn it down.
