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SME Snapshot – January 2024
Your monthly update on the latest industry news, opportunities for SMEs, and member's announcements.
Industry News
Scale ups
Secretary of State for the Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Michelle Donelan MP outlined a plan to provide extra support for UK scale-ups. This included a Scale-up forum to bring scale-ups into the heart of Government, a trial of a new support service for promising scale-ups, opening up Government data to help UK scale-ups better plan their growth strategies, improving access to investors DSIT and announced a Scale-up Policy Sprint, as recommended by techUK, to rapidly test new business support for this critical part of the tech sector. .
Ecosystems of Innovation
The UK Tech Cluster Group (UKTCG) has launched a report outlining how the next Government can harness the potential of the country’s tech ecosystems to support businesses and people right across the UK. They include improving tech talent pipelines across the UK, ensuring all businesses understand the opportunities from tech, localised innovation initiatives and tax credit incentives outside of the so-called ‘golden triangle’.
Grow Global
London & Partners has announced the launch of the Grow Global programme in two new regions outside of London - the West Midlands and Scotland. The year-long programme is designed to help scale-up businesses in these regions grow their international presence and achieve their full potential in the global market.
Recovery Loan Scheme
British Business Bank announced that the third iteration of its Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) has supported £1bn of finance offers to smaller businesses since its launch in August 2022. Approximately two thirds of facilities under the third phase of the scheme have been offered outside of London and the South-East.
National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprises
The National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprises (NICRE) has published a report looking at how the Government can support small firms in rural areas. The report highlighted that lack of availability of affordable housing locally, lack of transport services/infrastructure, inadequate broadband capacity and staff recruitment and retention were all seen as barriers to growth for rural small firms.
Opportunities
Manchester Prize
The Manchester Prize, an initiative of the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, will award £1 million every year to a team of innovators with the most cutting-edge AI solution for public good. The first Manchester Prize is seeking innovation from UK-led teams with breakthrough ideas for overcoming challenges in the fields of energy, environment and infrastructure. Up to ten finalist teams will initially receive £100,000 each, a generous package of non-financial support, and access to free computing power to develop their innovation. One finalist will win the £1 million grand prize in early 2025.
GSMA Innovation Fund for Humanitarian Challenges
The GSMA Innovation Fund for Humanitarian Challenges will provide grants and additional non-financial and technical support to projects that leverage mobile and digital technology to pilot and scale solutions that address humanitarian challenges in low- and middle-income countries. The Fund is open to applications from for-profit small and growing enterprises (commercially viable start-ups, small and medium enterprises, and social enterprises with up to 250 employees). Successful projects will receive a grant of between £100,000 and £250,000 to scale their innovation over a 15 to 18 month period.
Member news
Boldyn Networks
Boldyn Network and Roma Capitale have signed the agreement to build #Roma5G, the city's first advanced 5G infrastructure, open to all mobile network operators.
Boldyn Network also announced high-speed mobile coverage is now available on the busiest Elizabeth line platforms, escalators and tickets halls at Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon and Liverpool Street – with more stations connected in the coming months.
Riverlane
Riverlane is partnering with Rolls-Royce to build computational tools to simulate large, complex materials on a quantum computer. The project also involves working with the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) to engage with other industry leaders exploring quantum computing use cases across their sectors and business models.
Flare Bright
Following initial funding from the Defence And Security Accelerator (DASA) to help get it off the ground, Flare Bright has won contracts from leading aerospace companies, the UK Ministry of Defence and the United States Department of Defense.
Autogen AI
AutogenAI, announced it has closed a $39.5M Series B. Co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Spark Capital, with participation from Blossom Capital, the funding will enable AutogenAI to further develop its bid-writing product suite helping businesses more efficiently win more work. This marks the company’s second fundraise in four months, bringing total investments in AutogenAI to $65.3M.
Serco has announced a seven-figure, 3-year deal to deploy AutogenAI’s innovative generative AI software across the business globally. after pilot shows up to 85% time saving in knowledge management using AI.
Circulor
ACC is partnering with Circulor to prove the provenance, material journey, and embedded carbon emissions of the raw materials ACC uses in its battery cells.
SandboxAQ
SandboxAQ has acquired Good Chemistry, a computational chemistry company. This acquisition positions SandboxAQ to lead the next development in AI innovation – simulation, which is poised to make an impact across industries such as biopharma, specialty chemicals, energy, and others that benefit from advanced materials science.
SandboxAQ are also partnering with Accenture to deliver artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing solutions to help organizations identify and remediate cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
BigHand
BigHand have won Gold at The Titan Business Awards in the ‘Business Technology Solutions - Legal Solution’ category. The entry for its latest win focused on BigHand’s market-leading Resource Management solution, a work allocation and resourcing tool that allows law firms to identify resources, forecast utilization, manage workloads and add structure to career development for lawyers.
OneID
Digital signature pioneer Videosign has partnered with document-free digital identity verification specialists, OneID®, to further improve security options and convenience for users. The new partnership allows Videosign users to verify identities using bank-verified data before signing contracts and documents.
Yoti
Digital identity company Yoti has received £12.5 million debt funding from HSBC, and a further £7.5 million convertible debt funding from existing shareholders. The £20 million funding will support the continued growth of the company through to achieving profitability and beyond.
D-Wave
D-Wave and Deloitte Canada announced a new strategic to expedite the exploration and adoption of quantum computing solutions among governments and businesses in Canada.
The Data City
The Data City has secured a research project with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to help map engineering biology and power the next groundbreaking advancement in biological sciences..
Scrumconnect
Scrumconnect is creating 150 jobs as part of plans to expand across the North of England. The company said it would create 150 jobs in Newcastle to support its work with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
SME Connect
With over 600 SME members, techUK understands the issues that are most relevant to the UK SME tech sector. Visit the SME Connect section of the website for all the latest insights, guidance and events, and find out how techUK can help you with a range of services, programmes and advice. If you'd like to discuss further, please contact Ed Bevan, our Head of SME Engagement.
12 March 2024