Capti Innovation

Capti Innovation Capti Innovation prides itself on being the only company that fully concentrates on supporting innovation and technology grants in the UK.

Our expertise in this area means that you have a better chance of winning grant applications from over 30 funders.

31/07/2026

Publish a 100-day SME innovation scorecard

Jonathan Reynolds’ first 100 days should end with evidence, not another promise that evidence will arrive later.

Switzerland, Sweden and Singapore use different models, but their success shares recognisable features: sustained public investment, specialist delivery institutions, cooperation between research and business, support across development stages, and a clear connection between innovation and national economic priorities.

The UK already has excellent universities, entrepreneurs, investors, Catapults and sector clusters. WIPO ranked the country sixth globally in 2025. The opportunity is not to declare the ecosystem broken beyond repair. It is to make it more predictable, accessible and commercially effective—especially for SMEs.

The Business Secretary should publish a 100-day SME Innovation Scorecard covering:

• the next 24 months of grant competitions and their protected budgets;
• average days from application to decision, contract and first payment;
• the proportion of funding reaching SMEs and each UK nation and region;
• private co-investment attracted;
• new university–SME partnerships;
• paid demonstrators and first public-sector contracts;
• overseas R&D investments secured and UK suppliers engaged;
• jobs, exports and follow-on finance created; and
• outcomes by mission, including AI, health, energy, climate, food, water, materials and manufacturing.

It should also record application costs and unsuccessful applicant feedback. A scheme is not genuinely accessible if hundreds of SMEs collectively spend millions preparing bids for a handful of awards without timely, useful decisions.

Set targets, publish the baseline and report quarterly. Where a programme fails, change it. Where a regional model works, scale it. Where industry says a rule blocks investment, test whether the rule protects the public or merely protects the process.

Grant professionals call this “monitoring, evaluation and learning.” Founders call it checking whether the thing you announced actually happened.

The new department has a rare chance to join business support, science, trade and innovation into one coherent growth system. The first 100 days should make that system visible.

Capti Innovation’s mission is to make business funding more accessible. We help companies assess fundability, align with genuine priorities and develop a long-term non-dilutive funding strategy before committing to a complex application. To start a conversation, email [email protected]

31/07/2026

Build skills policy around funded industrial missions

Innovation policy fails when a country funds technology but cannot supply the people needed to develop, regulate, manufacture and sell it.

Switzerland’s strength rests partly on close connections between technical education, research institutions and high-value industry. Sweden’s strategic programmes bring companies and academia together around sustained industrial priorities. Singapore’s long-term research plans combine investment in science with talent development, infrastructure and commercialisation.

Jonathan Reynolds should use his new cross-cutting department to connect funding, skills and inward investment in the first 100 days.

The UK should create Mission Skills Compacts for a limited number of strategic areas: AI and cybersecurity; advanced materials and batteries; robotics and manufacturing automation; life sciences and medical technology; climate adaptation and water; food, soil and agricultural biotechnology; critical minerals and recycling; and fusion and clean energy.

Each compact should be led jointly by employers, universities, further-education colleges and regional government. It should publish:

• the roles and capabilities expected to be in shortage over five years;
• funded modular courses and conversion programmes;
• paid placements inside SMEs;
• industry fellowships for lecturers and researchers;
• support for experienced specialists to train others;
• a rapid route for essential overseas talent; and
• commitments from inward investors to apprenticeships and local workforce development.

Innovation grants should include realistic training costs, because skills created during a project are part of its economic value. Smaller businesses should also receive wage support for their first specialist R&D hire; a five-person company cannot compete with a multinational’s recruitment budget on goodwill alone.

This would make the UK more attractive to overseas investors while ensuring that public support builds domestic capability. It would also give young people and career changers a visible route into the industries government repeatedly says are priorities.

Grant applications love the phrase “capacity building.” It should mean more than inviting everyone to a webinar and emailing the slides afterwards.

At Capti Innovation, we help founders translate a technically exciting idea into a credible plan for people, delivery, commercialisation and funding. Every year we help hundreds of companies save time, pursue suitable opportunities and accelerate growth. Email [email protected]

30/07/2026

Offer inward investors a partnership, not only a tax calculation

Britain needs a clearer answer when an international technology company asks: “Why should we build our next R&D operation here?”

Singapore’s answer is deliberately joined up. The Economic Development Board provides investor support, its research strategy offers long-term funding visibility, Startup SG connects capital and company formation, and the wider ecosystem links investors with talent, infrastructure and research partners. WIPO’s 2025 index ranked Singapore first globally for policy stability for doing business and FDI net inflows, among several leading indicators.

The lesson for Jonathan Reynolds is not that the UK should imitate a city-state. It is that inward investment is won through coordination and certainty.

Within 100 days, the Business Secretary should launch UK Innovation Landing Agreements for companies committing to significant R&D, manufacturing or regional supply-chain investment. Each agreement should provide:

• one accountable investment director;
• a 12-week timetable covering sites, planning, skills and incentives;
• introductions to universities, Catapults and relevant SMEs;
• support to build a UK supplier-development programme;
• access to challenge-led grants and test facilities on equal, transparent terms;
• help recruiting specialist international and domestic talent; and
• measurable commitments on UK jobs, R&D, procurement and knowledge transfer.

Incentives should be milestone-based, with larger support reserved for investments that create durable capability—not simply a registered office or a press release. Every major agreement should include opportunities for British SMEs to become suppliers, co-development partners or technology licensees.

This matters because inward investment and SME policy should reinforce one another. A new overseas laboratory is more valuable when it buys from UK innovators. A grant-funded British company becomes more investable when it can enter a global supply chain.

In bid language, the programme needs “clearly evidenced spillover benefits.” In ordinary English: if public money helps attract an international company, British businesses should feel the benefit.

Capti Innovation helps innovative companies identify the right non-dilutive opportunities and align projects with UK and European priorities. We focus on strategy, fundability and long-term growth—not chasing every open call. To explore your options, email [email protected]

30/07/2026

Turn public procurement into a first customer

If government wants more British innovation, it should become better at buying it.

Sweden’s innovation model is built around cooperation and real-world transformation. Its programmes convene public bodies, industry and research organisations in strategic fields, while test-and-demonstration funding helps SMEs prove performance before market entry. Singapore also uses its compact, coordinated ecosystem to connect technology development with adoption.

Jonathan Reynolds should make innovation procurement a first-100-days priority.

The UK should establish a “Challenge to Contract” programme. Public bodies would publish specific operational problems—not predetermined product specifications—and SMEs would compete first for small feasibility awards, then paid pilots, then a procurement route for solutions that meet pre-agreed performance thresholds.

Challenges could include:

• reducing NHS diagnostic waiting times;
• detecting leaks and protecting water supplies;
• improving cyber resilience in councils and hospitals;
• automating dangerous or repetitive manufacturing tasks;
• monitoring soil health and farm inputs;
• recovering critical materials from waste;
• improving energy storage and grid flexibility; and
• adapting roads, homes and public spaces to extreme weather.

Crucially, the programme should reserve meaningful participation for SMEs, use standard contracts, protect background IP and pay invoices within 15 days. Pilot results should be independently validated and visible to other public buyers, allowing one successful trial to unlock a national market.

For founders, a paying reference customer can unlock private investment and exports. For taxpayers, challenge-led procurement directs funding toward measurable public outcomes. For inward investors, a transparent route to test and sell new technology makes the UK a more attractive launch market.

The current ritual too often asks an SME for five-year revenue projections before it has been allowed near its first customer. That is less “commercialisation strategy” and more creative writing with a spreadsheet.

At Capti Innovation, we help businesses build the evidence, work packages, risk plan and commercial case that serious funders expect. Our mission is to make business funding more accessible while protecting founders’ time and capital. For more information, email [email protected]

29/07/2026

Back deep tech from proof-of-concept to growth

The UK cannot claim to want frontier technology while leaving companies stranded between a successful prototype and commercial scale.

Singapore treats this funding gap as an economic-development challenge. Startup SG Tech supports proof-of-concept and proof-of-value work for proprietary technology. Startup SG Equity uses public co-investment to catalyse private capital, and Singapore’s 2026 Budget added S$1 billion to support early- and growth-stage deep-tech companies.

Switzerland also recognises that different stages need different instruments: an innovation cheque for feasibility, start-up innovation projects before market entry, research-partner projects and accelerator-style support for established SMEs with high-potential R&D.

Jonathan Reynolds should introduce a UK Deep Tech Funding Ladder within his first 100 days. It should provide a visible, staged path:

1. £25,000 feasibility vouchers;
2. £100,000 proof-of-concept awards;
3. £500,000 proof-of-value and regulatory-validation grants;
4. £2 million demonstration and first-customer awards; and
5. patient co-investment for manufacturing and international scale-up.

Progression should never be automatic, but strong performers should not restart from zero at every stage. Evidence, due diligence and reporting should travel with the company. Decisions should be milestone-based, with rapid stop/go reviews and a published maximum time to contract.

Priority portfolios should include AI and cybersecurity, semiconductors, advanced materials, fusion supply chains, energy storage, climate resilience, critical minerals, robotics, medical technologies, resilient food systems and the circular economy.

This would preserve founder ownership while attracting private investment at the point where technical risk has been reduced. It would also give overseas companies a reason to place research teams, pilots and manufacturing partnerships in the UK: the country would offer not just excellent science, but a complete route to scale.

In grant-speak, Britain needs “continuity across the commercialisation pathway.” In founder-speak: please stop building bridges that finish halfway across the river.

Capti Innovation specialises in non-dilutive funding strategy for ambitious technology businesses. We assess scope, TRL, affordability and alignment before engagement, because a grant should strengthen a wider finance plan—not become a very expensive lottery ticket. Email [email protected]

29/07/2026

Make universities partners in commercialisation

The UK has world-class research. The policy question is how much of it becomes world-class business.

Switzerland’s innovation system deliberately connects implementation partners with research institutions. Its innovation cheque lets SMEs test a collaboration before attempting a larger project, while Innosuisse supports joint projects aimed at developing new products, services and processes. Sweden’s strategic innovation programmes similarly unite companies, academia and public organisations around long-term national challenges.

Jonathan Reynolds should use his combined business, science and trade brief to close Britain’s translation gap.

In the first 100 days, he should announce Commercialisation Compacts for every UK university receiving significant public research funding. The compact should require a simple SME engagement offer and reward institutions for commercial outcomes, not merely patents filed.

The package could include:

• a standard four-week process for SMEs to access expertise and facilities;
• model IP agreements with transparent options and costs;
• funded Entrepreneur-in-Residence placements;
• proof-of-concept grants for research teams and SME partners;
• shared technical staff who can move between laboratory and company;
• milestone funding from validation to first sale; and
• incentives for spin-outs to retain meaningful founder ownership.

This approach would be especially powerful in advanced materials, fusion, energy storage, agritech, water, cancer technologies, neuroscience, critical raw materials and industrial AI—areas where scientific quality is necessary but regulatory, engineering and commercial evidence determine whether an idea reaches the market.

The inward-investment case is equally strong. International companies do not select R&D locations on tax alone. They look for specialist talent, facilities, collaborators, suppliers and a workable path from research to commercial deployment. A national network of easy-to-access university capabilities would give the UK a much clearer proposition.

And yes, the application will still ask applicants to explain “knowledge exchange.” The ideal answer is not a workshop with sandwiches. It is a product, a customer, skilled jobs and valuable IP being developed in Britain.

At Capti Innovation, we build the funding strategy before writing the application. We assess technical readiness, commercial logic, partnership quality and competition fit so that founders pursue the right opportunity for the right project. Email [email protected]

28/07/2026

Fund testbeds, not just proposals

Britain is good at generating prototypes. The more difficult step is proving that they work in the real world.

Sweden’s innovation agency, Vinnova, funds SMEs to test and demonstrate innovative solutions in realistic environments before market introduction. Its 2026 test-and-demo offer can fund up to 70% of eligible costs, subject to scheme limits. Sweden also uses strategic programmes that bring companies, universities and public bodies together around areas such as mobility, life sciences, mining, smart infrastructure and bio-based industry.

That is a valuable lesson for Jonathan Reynolds’ first 100 days: innovation support should buy evidence, not simply activity.

The UK should establish a national network of SME Demonstrator Zones. Local authorities, NHS organisations, farms, water companies, manufacturers, transport operators and energy networks would identify operational challenges and provide controlled environments in which SMEs could validate solutions. Government funding would cover testing, independent measurement, certification and the cost of the first deployment.

Imagine:

• climate-adaptation technology tested with flood-prone communities;
• AI diagnostics evaluated in an NHS pathway;
• robotics demonstrated in a regional manufacturing cluster;
• soil-regeneration biotech trialled with farmers;
• battery and storage systems validated on a local energy network;
• recycling technology proven with a council waste operator; or
• cybersecurity tools tested against realistic public-sector scenarios.

Each project should begin with an agreed evidence plan and end with data that customers and investors can trust. Successful demonstrations should lead into procurement, export support or scale-up finance—not another cliff edge.

For inward investors, shared test infrastructure lowers the cost and risk of choosing the UK as a development base. For SMEs, a recognised reference customer can be worth as much as the grant itself.

Grant assessors often ask for “a credible exploitation plan.” Nothing makes an exploitation plan more credible than a customer who has watched the technology work.

Capti Innovation helps businesses turn technical development into an investable, fundable programme—covering TRL, scope, commercial evidence and alignment with challenge-led funding. We help hundreds of companies save time and accelerate growth. Email [email protected]

28/07/2026

Replace the funding maze with one front door

Jonathan Reynolds now oversees business, innovation, science and trade. His department should therefore be able to answer one surprisingly difficult question: where should an innovative SME go for support?

At present, a founder may encounter Innovate UK, UKRI councils, local growth bodies, Catapults, tax reliefs, export schemes, procurement opportunities and international programmes—each with different rules, portals, dates and language. A sophisticated ecosystem can still feel like a maze when viewed from a ten-person company.

Singapore provides a practical comparison. Enterprise Singapore groups support around recognisable business outcomes: starting, building capability, adopting technology, financing growth and entering overseas markets. Startup SG brings mentorship, grants, co-investment and ecosystem connections under a recognisable umbrella. The important lesson is not to copy a logo. It is to organise support around the company’s journey.

Within his first 100 days, Jonathan Reynolds should launch a single UK Business Innovation Account. An SME would enter its size, location, sector, technology readiness level, funding position and intended market once. The service would then produce:

• a personalised funding and finance pathway;
• relevant grants, loans, tax incentives and procurement opportunities;
• named regional and technical contacts;
• clear eligibility warnings before an application begins;
• a shared due-diligence record, so the same information is not requested repeatedly; and
• an estimated decision and payment date for every scheme.

The account should also support overseas investors. A company considering a UK base should be able to see available R&D partners, skills clusters, test facilities, local suppliers, property and incentives in one place—and receive a named case manager.

Good policy reduces transaction costs. Every hour a founder spends navigating duplicated forms is an hour not spent validating technology, winning customers or creating jobs.

Or, in application language: “Please describe your route to market in 400 words.” Government should be able to describe the route to its own support in fewer.

At Capti Innovation, we make complex funding routes easier to navigate. We assess whether a project is genuinely fundable, align it with UK and European priorities, and build the strategy before the bid. For an informed conversation, email [email protected]

27/07/2026

Introduce a UK Innovation Voucher within 30 days

If Jonathan Reynolds wants an early policy that SMEs can feel quickly, he should introduce a national UK Innovation Voucher.

Switzerland’s Innosuisse offers an innovation cheque worth up to CHF15,000. It allows an SME to commission a preliminary study with a research partner and test the technical feasibility, market potential and value of a new idea before committing to a full R&D programme.

This sounds modest beside a billion-pound announcement. That is precisely why it matters.

For an early-stage company, the first funding gap is often not a £2 million scale-up round. It is the £10,000–£25,000 needed to validate a material, test a battery concept, assess a medical device pathway, verify an AI model, investigate a critical-minerals process or prove that a climate-adaptation technology works outside a PowerPoint presentation.

In his first 100 days, the Business Secretary should launch £25,000 vouchers for UK SMEs, with a short application, decisions within four weeks and access to universities, Catapult centres, approved laboratories and specialist test facilities. Priority tracks could cover:

• advanced materials and energy storage;
• climate adaptation and water resilience;
• food security and soil regeneration;
• medtech, cancer detection and neuroscience;
• cybersecurity, robotics and industrial automation; and
• circular economy and critical raw materials.

The voucher should be paid directly to the delivery partner, removing cash-flow pressure from the SME. A successful feasibility project should then receive a fast route into a larger proof-of-concept competition.

The benefits would reach beyond grant recipients. Universities would gain more commercially relevant partnerships. Supply chains would see new demand. Investors would receive better technical evidence. Overseas companies considering a UK R&D base would see an ecosystem designed to connect expertise with enterprise.

Grant writers may call this “de-risking at an earlier technology readiness level.” Founders may prefer: finding out whether the idea works before remortgaging the house.

Capti Innovation helps founders assess scope, TRL, affordability and strategic fit before an application consumes time and capital. Our purpose is to make funding more accessible and turn strong innovation into a fundable plan. Email [email protected]

27/07/2026

Give innovation a ten-year covenant, not a ten-week headline

Jonathan Reynolds has inherited a department with an unusually powerful combination: business, innovation, science and trade. His first task should be to turn that combination into certainty.

The UK does not lack ideas. WIPO ranked us sixth in the 2025 Global Innovation Index. What many founders lack is a reliable route from idea to financed development, validation and market entry. An announcement that “billions” will be invested is not the same as an SME being able to see which competition will open, when it will open, what it will fund and when the first payment will arrive.

Singapore offers a useful lesson. It has refreshed its national research and innovation strategy in five-year cycles since 2010. Its new RIE2030 plan commits S$37 billion over five years—around 1% of GDP—and reserves flexibility for new opportunities. Switzerland also protects a recognisable innovation system through Innosuisse, with routes for feasibility studies, research partnerships, start-ups and international collaboration.

In his first 100 days, Jonathan Reynolds should publish a ten-year UK Innovation Covenant, backed by a fully costed first five-year settlement. It should include:

• a rolling 24-month calendar of SME competitions;
• protected budgets for proof-of-concept, demonstration and scale-up;
• quarterly payment timetables;
• regional allocations that prevent opportunity being concentrated in the usual postcodes; and
• a commitment that material scheme changes require notice and consultation.

That would help British SMEs plan recruitment and co-investment without trying to read policy tea leaves. It would also tell overseas investors that the UK is a dependable place to locate R&D, suppliers and intellectual property.

In grant terminology, the “need” is clear, the “intervention logic” is overdue, and the “additionality” could be enormous. Founders should not need a decoder ring to find out whether government still wants them to innovate.

At Capti Innovation, our mission is to make business funding more accessible. We help companies protect their time, build a credible non-dilutive funding strategy and pursue opportunities that genuinely fit. To discuss your funding roadmap, email [email protected]

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