Financing the future of semiconductors

The potential of the UK Semiconductor sector

Half of the world's ten largest companies by market cap are built on semiconductor design or production- Apple, Microsoft, TSMC, Broadcom, and Nvidia. Semiconductors underpin every priority growth sector in the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy, powering global markets worth over $10 trillion, with this global demand showing no signs of slowing.

The UK has the ingredients to build these world-class businesses here, and techUK members are already proving it: Arm, the UK's most valuable tech company; Fractile, which raised over $200m this summer alone; or Pragmatic Semiconductor raising £180m in its 2023 series D fundraising round. BIST's 2026 sector study confirms the momentum, 703 UK semiconductor companies (up from 623), generating £10.6bn in revenue and supporting up to 32,550 jobs.

But scaling is where it gets hard. The same study shows activity concentrating in a handful of large players while access to scale-up capital remains one of the most persistent barriers to growth.

techUK members tell us why: investors who understand semiconductor timelines and capital needs are hard to find, UK-backed funds rarely take the lead investor role at growth stage, and as a result around 70% of fundraising has gone to just five firms. The UK still draws only a tenth of the VC funding of its US counterparts, despite having the world's second-largest VC base. Less than 10% of SMEs in the UK are currently exporting, compared to 44% of those in Germany, this is an environment that must change for such a high potential, and internationally connected sector.

Even where public capital exists, schemes are often hard to identify or navigate, especially for small companies with limited resources.

Looking ahead

As conventional silicon approaches the limits of Moore's Law, frontier compute paradigms, including photonic, quantum and neuromorphic chips, are defining the next generation of semiconductors. They process data in fundamentally different ways: using light instead of electricity, harnessing quantum physics, or mimicking the brain. They promise to solve problems classical chips struggle with, often at a fraction of the energy use or latency. The UK has a narrow window to turn its research strengths in these areas into companies that scale here, before global leaders lock in the standards, infrastructure and supply chains that will shape the market for decades.

This is what our session is built to fix. The UK has a world class base of academia, R&D and SMEs, however it is critical that these companies have the financial backing needed, to start scale and grow in the UK. The businesses that scale fastest will be the ones plugged into the right networks and capital, at the right time.

A joint techUK Semiconductor and Scale-Up event

Join techUK, as we leverage our convening power across our Semiconductor, Scale-Up and Photonics and Frontier Compute programmes, to bring together the policymakers, investors and ecosystem leaders defining the next generation of funding decisions.

Benefits and takeaways

Why attend:

• Hear directly from those defining how semiconductor investment decisions get made in the UK

• Understand the barriers companies face in securing growth-stage capital, and how to overcome them

• Connect with investors, founders and policymakers working across the semiconductor ecosystem

Insights from this session will form part of techUK's year-long focus on Frontier Compute and feed into a report – to be published in early 2027 that summarises the initiative's main findings and recommendations for key decision-makers in government.

Agenda

9:30 | Arrivals and registration

10:00 | Welcome from techUK

10:05 | Industry keynote

10:20 | Session 1: Funding the idea – accessing semiconductor finance

This discussion focuses on how early-stage semiconductor companies can access the funding they need to develop, demonstrate and commercialise their technologies. Hear from public-sector investors and support organisations on the funding routes available, what they are looking for, and how founders can position themselves for success.


Opener: What role do you play in the funding landscape, and how does that differ from other organisations on the stage?
How is your work supporting early stage, pre-revenue companies, whether through grants, profile raising or co-investment?
Are you particularly keen to speak to organisations working in certain markets or verticals?
For those in the audience, how should they prepare to maximise their chance of succeeding in fund raising for you? What is the single biggest reason good applications get rejected or never submitted?
How can members of the audience get in touch to collaborate with your organisation?

11:00 | Break

11:10 | Session 2: Beyond the cheque – partnerships, commercialisation, exports and R&D

Capital is only one part of scaling a semiconductor business. This session explores the partnerships, procurement opportunities, R&D support, international connections and routes to market that can help companies turn investment into commercial growth, and build the networks they need to scale in the UK and internationally.


Opener: What role do you play in the startup and scaleup landscape, and how does that differ from other organisations on the stage?
What non-financial support changes a company's trajectory as much as capital would?
Where do procurement, cross-sector partners, or export routes open doors that pure investment does not?
What is the one relationship in this room a company should be chasing that is not about money?
How can they get in touch with you directly after today?

13:50 | Closing remarks

12:00 | Networking lunch