Scaling In: Life Sciences – techUK and Barclays Innovation Banking: event round-up

In partnership with Barclays Innovation Banking, we brought together early-stage and scaling life sciences innovators, connecting the dots across the UK's life sciences ecosystem, investors and ecosystem partners at Barclays Eagle Lab in Leeds on 17 September 2026. The forum explored the end-to-end journey of scaling a life sciences company – from building the right team and securing finance, to navigating regulation, generating clinical evidence and accessing markets in the UK, Europe and the US. The discussion was frank about the challenges, but equally clear that the UK has the infrastructure, capital and appetite for innovation to support companies with the ambition to grow.

What investors look for

Participants were clear that deep-science businesses face a long and expensive path to profitability, and that investors know it. Health tech, life sciences and deep tech are not software businesses: a ten-year horizon is widely understood, and portfolios now range from physical devices to AI drug discovery software.

Team before science: investors increasingly back the best teams rather than the best science. A founding team with genuine domain expertise underpins credible thought leadership, while venture funding’s appetite for quicker returns means commercial expertise tends to be brought in early.

Demand and a growth story: there has to be real demand for the product, and the growth story behind that demand is what investors test. Using genomics as an example, participants noted that the science may be deep, but it is the story that gets you into the room.

A shifting landscape: AI now permeates almost every proposition and quantum has become a much bigger presence, with life sciences remaining a constant.

Building the regional ecosystem

Leeds provided a strong backdrop for a discussion on how regions can nurture and retain scaling companies. Regional support works best when delivered through ecosystem partners – bringing innovation in, then investing behind it – rather than through direct intervention.

With a healthtech-only zone already in place, the challenge for Leeds is how to support organisations once they outgrow it while keeping them rooted in the region. Participants identified revenue as the key signal to watch, and three enablers were highlighted for growing the cluster:

Clear requirements for working with universities

A functioning spin-out ecosystem, with Nexus cited as an example

Dedicated support for scale-up businesses

Access to finance and skills

Much of the progress to date has been driven by public money, and the question now is how to fill the gaps it leaves behind. Participants named access to finance as the key constraint, with participants calling for the right programme – ideally backed by a dedicated fund – and stressing that money must reach businesses in practice, not just be committed at headline level.

Participants identified skills as the other major gap, currently addressed largely through academic support programmes. Participants felt incubators are broadly doing the right thing, with mentors playing a critical role in helping founders progress.

Regulation: engage early

A recurring theme was that businesses engage with regulators far too late. Participants distinguished between two separate challenges – the regulation of health and life sciences products and the regulation of the business itself – noting that both need clear ownership.

Small organisations in particular need to make regulatory decisions earlier than they typically do, with risk appetite set appropriately for their stage of growth.

There is plenty of red tape to navigate, but also many teams available to help – the practical advice was to get involved early and keep the relevant teams informed throughout.

Investors want a clear regulatory journey that tells a story and builds confidence, and founders need to be able to walk them through it.

Clinical validation: evidence is the currency

Nothing moves without evidence. With life sciences firmly on the growth agenda, the policy support is there, but companies must do the work to generate and present robust evidence.

Go to the regulator as early as possible, rather than at the end of development.

Use clinical trials and collaborations to build the evidence base, and present it with a clear narrative.

Be prepared to adapt the offering in response to what the evidence shows.

Aim for a mix of clinical trials – and where there isn’t one, be ready to explain why, and who has been involved on the regulatory side.

What sets fast-growing businesses apart

Participants reflected on the common traits of organisations that scale quickly:

Access to test environments: contacts already in place, open-minded people willing to engage, and organisations prepared to embrace and sandbox new products and act as a centre of innovation.

Strong national foundations: the UK’s national infrastructure, significant available capital and a genuine appetite for innovation all provide a platform to build on.

Ambition from day one: the framing question is whether a company aims to change the world or change Leeds. Organisations with an eye on growth grow faster because they already have everything in motion – and the region has a world-class university on its doorstep to support that ambition.

The relationship between NHS (National Health Service) trusts and scale-ups was described as a chicken-and-egg problem: trusts want proven products, but products need trusts in order to prove them. The infrastructure to address this is being put in place, and programmes such as Propel (Programme for Entrepreneurial Leadership) are helping companies scale locally, regionally and internationally – providing dedicated support on ISO (International Organization for Standardization) requirements, legal advice, international strategy and investment, and taking early-stage ideas through to prototype.

Participants also highlighted that women’s health and female innovators need a different type of support, particularly around intellectual property, and that funding should enable organisations to build on successful examples. Overall, lifting ambition requires thought leadership backed by practical support.

International markets: Europe and the US

Europe: since Brexit, entering Europe means navigating European regulation – but the bigger challenge is reimbursement, which differs across 27 countries with different cultures, languages and central versus regional decision-making. There are signs of movement, with the European Commission releasing a €5bn fund.

Local champions: market access depends on finding local champions in each market and securing a key opinion leader.

The US: companies gravitate to the US because healthcare spend per capita is so much higher, but it is a highly competitive market.

The UK paradox: it remains hard to sell in the UK, even when trials have been run here.

Participants agreed that money alone is not enough. The idea of a dedicated UK agency to coordinate international market access was floated, recognising that medtech and life sciences look very different across countries and regions. There was also clear appetite to double down on trade expansion, with trade missions seen as a valuable way for companies to promote one another – collaboration rather than competition.

Key takeaways

Build the team and the story: investors back expert teams with a credible growth narrative grounded in real demand.

Engage regulators early: a clear, well-evidenced regulatory journey builds investor confidence and avoids costly delays.

Treat evidence as currency: plan clinical validation from the outset and be ready to adapt in response to it.

Embed ambition from the start: organisations that plan for growth early scale faster.

Make finance work in practice: funding must reach organisations on the ground, backed by skills, mentoring and scale-up support.

Collaborate to compete internationally: local champions, trade missions and coordinated support are key to unlocking overseas markets.

Looking ahead

We'd like to thank Barclays Innovation Banking for hosting and partnering on this event, and all the innovators, investors and ecosystem partners who contributed to such an open discussion. We'll continue to work with our members, investors and partners to address the barriers to scaling raised in the room – from access to finance and regulatory engagement to NHS adoption and international expansion.

If you'd like to find out more about our Health and Social Care programme or our work supporting SMEs and Scale Ups, please get in touch.