The UK’s research and innovation landscape is at a pivotal moment. Spin-out companies, born from world-class academic research, are attracting unprecedented levels of investment and consistently outperforming the wider high-growth market. Across the SETsquared Partnership alone, more than £400 million has flowed into spin-outs in the last two years, demonstrating both investor confidence and the depth of opportunity emerging from our universities.

Yet beneath this success lies a more complex picture – one that reflects both the challenges and the potential of scaling innovative ideas into thriving businesses.

The UK remains a global leader in innovation, with Europe’s largest technology ecosystem and the world’s third-largest venture capital market. Scaling companies beyond proof-of-concept, however, remains challenging. Funding gaps, talent shortages, and structural barriers shape which companies grow and which struggle.

At Investment Futures, participants explored practical strategies for overcoming these hurdles and discussed initiatives designed to close the gaps that hold back deep-tech growth.

Ideas drive the UK’s innovation ecosystem, but people sustain it. For spin-outs and scale-ups, assembling the right leadership team is as critical as developing the technology itself – yet harder than ever amid tighter funding, global competition for talent, and evolving expectations of work and leadership.

A roundtable at Investment Futures explored the challenges of attracting, building, and retaining leadership teams in early-stage companies, highlighting what it really takes to align talent, culture, and strategy to scale successfully.

The UK’s investment ecosystem is built on capital, but it is sustained by people, and opportunity is not evenly distributed. Gender, ethnicity, background, and geography still shape who gets funded and who gets overlooked, despite clear evidence that diverse teams deliver stronger returns.

At Investment Futures, a discussion explored the practicalities of inclusive capital: how investors and founders can broaden their perspective, and what interventions can shift entrenched systems. The conversation highlighted a persistent tension: while diversity drives performance, traditional structures and habitual practices continue to limit progress.

Examining diverse funding routes for innovative ventures.