The nine-month Innovate UK pilot, delivered by Pioneer Group in partnership with Science Creates, works across Frontier AI, Engineering Biology, and Advanced Materials and Manufacturing.
The Innovate UK Venture Builder begins on 1 October 2026, supporting deep-tech spin-outs to become investment-ready ventures ahead of their first significant round.
Innovate UK Venture Builder addresses a specific failure in the UK ecosystem: spin-outs with validated markets and defensible science that struggle to reach their first significant investment round. The programme applies intensive venture building support and decision gates at every stage, so that at the end there is a venture an investor can commit to. Innovate UK’s March 2026 prospectus set out its role as a technical due diligence engine for UK deep tech. The pilot applies that standard to every venture in the cohort.
The cohort is made up of seven ventures in Frontier AI, nine in Engineering Biology and nine in Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, three tracks aligned to the IS-6 priority sectors of the UK Industrial Strategy. Between them, they are working in applied AI for scientific, industrial and safety-critical settings, engineered biological platforms spanning biomedicine, food systems and agriculture, and advanced materials and processes for energy, healthcare and industrial manufacturing.
The ventures have come out of 16 UK universities and research institutes across eight regions of the UK. The full cohort will be introduced when the programme begins in October.
Image Credit: Innovate UK Business Connect
