You would be forgiven to think that we’ve heard and seen it all when it comes to incubation and acceleration of startups. As it stands, there are about 350 incubators and accelerators in the UK, while UK tech investment has recently reached $18 billion, the highest in Europe. 

Indeed, the idea of developing a support programme and dynamic environment to help people successfully start and grow a small business is not new. Born in the mid-noughties in the United States, these programmes have proved to be far more than just Silicon Valley hype. In fact, a 2019 report from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy estimated that within five years of accelerator formation in a given UK region, an additional £48 million (26 deals) are invested in high-tech industries. 

Just like the tech itself, the tech community develops and changes quickly, and we’ve seen incubators and accelerators, and their close cousins, startup platforms and co-working spaces, develop into a lot of different shapes and sizes over the last 15 years. With the unwelcome arrival of Covid-19, these support programmes had to flex and adapt more than ever.  At Digital Catapult, as in other places, we shifted all of our accelerator programmes online almost overnight, as well as our lab activities to make them remote wherever possible, even shipping kit back and forth between participants and our labs as needed. 

But despite this flexibility, some core characteristics of accelerators and incubators have remained largely the same. Programmes still rarely bring together startups across the whole spectrum of advanced technologies, and rarely offer them support throughout their product and business lifecycle. This may keep us from addressing both startup needs and the larger industrial and societal challenges that need to be solved in the most effective way. 

Strategy = Plan + Action

As the UK looks to retain its position on the world stage, we find ourselves navigating the effects of Brexit and post-pandemic challenges and successfully driving technology innovation and helping new innovative companies grow is more important than ever. 

The government has launched ambitious strategies to continue to build out the UK’s strength in innovation, from Artificial Intelligence to, most recently, its Net Zero strategy, which promises to unlock £90 billion in investment by 2030.

Strategic direction is essential. But, in order for the UK to really fulfil the ambition of becoming a ‘superpower’ when it comes to science and innovation, we must think of strategy both as plan and action, and create the right environments for our startup communities to succeed. 

Innovation strategy brought to life

One of the ways we can do this is changing how we think about developing and growing our technology startups. Indeed, the UK tech startup community is a legitimate success story. According to Digital Catapult’s Digital Future Index, globally the UK rates second for distributed ledger technology startups, immersive startups, and AI startups. Our Machine Intelligence Garage programme alone, for example, has supported more than 100 high potential artificial intelligence startups. 

But, as these and many other statistics show, the market often thinks about startups in siloes, be they tech or market silos and programmes to assist them have often been structured accordingly. 

Whether we are looking to digitally transform whole sectors, or address complex  systemic challenges like climate change, we must enable and bring together startups across technologies and markets, while maintaining the specific support they need. A more holistic yet individualised approach is needed in order to enable the growth of the startups and the ecosystem in which they operate, in order to drive challenge-focused, creative innovation. 

Growing new ecosystems

The tech ecosystem is changing rapidly, and the ways technologies can work together to create new value is crystallising. We have to view technology as an enabler and a horizontal capability, and sectors as springboards for change, rather than siloed verticals and destinations in their own right. 

Take an immersive startup working in gaming. Immersive applications in industrial sectors for remote repairs,  virtual product testing, or employee training, to name but a few are becoming more relevant as industry strives to keep workers out of harm's way, and reduce environmental impact from unnecessary travel. There are clear opportunities for such a startup to expand and create value. 

And now think about how this value is magnified if the immersive application can be linked with real time data analytics in a seamlessly connected environment. We’re increasingly evidencing the value of connecting technologies and their providers across technology and sector siloes. From 5G Factory of the Future, which harnesses 5G to power factories and Industry 4.0 technologies, to our new Virtual Production Test Stage, which allows organisations to experiment with a raft of virtual production technologies. 

We’ve also seen some brilliant examples of startups moving into new technologies and sectors coming through our programmes, and some of those have recently been highlighted at our Digital Catapult Awards 2021.

The need for new, more flexible ecosystems is why Digital Catapult has developed a new way of designing and delivering our startup support programmes, bringing them under one roof FutureScope and giving a new focus to mixed stage and mixed technology cohorts addressing key industrial and societal challenges. 

Our first cohort will focus on  addressing industrial net zero, supporting early stage companies and scaleups by providing the expertise they need at their specific lifecycle stage, and helping them get in front of technology adopters and investors.

Flex and lifelong support

We have no shortage of innovative ideas in the UK. Where we are still tripping up is getting these ideas all the way from seed to shelf. Some brilliant concepts flourish from incubators and accelerators, but many are still getting stuck in what we call ‘pilot purgatory.’

Historically, incubators and accelerators have supported startups and small businesses at one of their stages of development, helping them overcome very specific challenges at a moment in time. Going forward, startup support programmes need to look at building a lifelong relationship with the companies they support – nurturing them throughout the course of their journey. From skills development, to incubation and commercialisation, we need to offer startups the support they need – no matter where they are in their journey. 

This also means being able to flex and accommodate new types of collaboration; creating a space where government, regulators, corporates, researchers and investors can all come together as part of an innovation ecosystem. Having programmes in place for startups that take a more considered, long-term view means more space for this to happen, in place of disparate and disjointed efforts: pieces of a puzzle that don’t quite fit.

Future investment 

Despite initial nervousness, foreign direct investment is holding up in our new life outside of the European Union, and UK small businesses have responded to the pandemic with aplomb. 

However, for the startup community, accessing the right support is absolutely central to making hay while UK innovation shines. From robotics to quantum, we are showing glimmers of promise in so many critical areas. We need to grab these opportunities with both hands and not risk that they slip through our fingers.