DSIT published the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan Year One Update on 10 June, its first authoritative scorecard, counting 107,082 active tech companies generating £158bn in GVA (gross value added) and 655 active university spinouts 1. UK companies were granted 1,521 patents in 2024, 41% of the national total through the Intellectual Property Office.
The capital figures tell the sharper story. The scorecard logs £8.3bn of equity across 1,284 deals for the whole of 2025; Lowdown reported $10.5bn landing in the first four months of 2026 alone . Roughly the same money is now arriving in a third of the time, yet the deal count is falling. That is the barbell stated in the government's own data: more capital, fewer rounds, the middle hollowing out.
A founder raising a mid-sized Series A is competing for attention in the exact band that is thinning, while mega-rounds soak up the headline capital. The same pattern showed in OQC closing £260m the same week the scorecard measures . The plan also surfaced fresh raises, including NuQuantum's $60m Series A, the largest quantum-networking round globally, Optalysys at £23m, and Cambridge GaN Devices closing a $32m Series C.
