Top 6 UK product funding opportunities for 2023

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• Creative Growth Finance: Loans of £100,000 to £1m (million)
• Innovation Funding Service: 32 competitions where SMEs share up to £5m
• Innovate UK ‘Smart’: Apply for a share of up to £100m
• EIC (European Innovation Council) Accelerator Grant: Apply for a share of £800m
• The Health Foundation: £200m to support tech-enabled approaches to care
• Flight Story Fund: £81m in investments to accelerate growth across 6 sectors

Applying for funding can be time-consuming and tedious, but if done right, it will take your business or product idea to new heights. Better still, most of these funding opportunities have online portals with a business consultation quiz to verify your eligibility to apply before wasting your time.

Read our previous article on the top tips for a successful pitch to get a brief overview of the type of information (e.g. financial reports or forecasts, patents, letters of intent, market research) you need to present to make your application stand out.

Creative Growth Finance: Fixed interest loans and access to support

Creative UK is an independent network for the UK’s creative industries focused on generating opportunities for innovation. By partnering with Triodos Bank, they offer fixed-interest loans of £100,000 to £1m. Not only can you do an online eligibility check before applying, but you’ll also get a response within three days once you do. In addition to funding, successful applicants also benefit from access to support programs, long-term specialist support, and a strategic partner with a vested interest in helping their business grow.

GOV.UK launches the Innovation Funding Service for UK registered businesses

While this newly launched service is still in its BETA stage, it boasts over 30 different UK product funding opportunities for 2023. These opportunities are competition-based, and winners walk away with a share of the funding available. In addition, the competitions comprise such a diverse range of categories that you’ll be hard-pressed not to find anything you’re eligible for. Innovation Funding Service competitions include opportunities for:

• Industrial research to make the UK civil aerospace sector more competitive
• Innovations addressing drug-related overdose priorities
• Solutions that increase access to Occupational Health Services
• Feasibility projects to improve productivity, profitability, and sustainability in the agricultural sector
• Engineering Biology (EngBio) technologies
• Robotics and automation innovation projects

If you don’t find what you’re looking for from the Innovation Funding Service, make sure to look at other UK government funding programs with an even more extensive list of available opportunities.

Innovate UK supports SMEs to develop ‘disruptive’ technologies

‘Smart’ is Innovate UK’s responsive grant funding programme. The fund has almost £25m available that those involved in tech-based innovative R&D can apply for a share of. They are specifically looking for disruptive innovations that have a significant potential to drive rapid economic growth in the UK. This calls for game-changing and world-leading ideas designed for quick and successful commercialisation.

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The EIC Accelerator Grant is open to UK SMEs despite Brexit

If you’ve been worrying that the UK leaving the European Union has cut you off from a bigger pool of funding, the EIC Accelerator Grant proves that this isn’t necessarily the case. It’s open to UK-registered businesses to apply and aims to:

• Help startups and spinout companies develop and scaleup game-changing innovations
• Grant substantial financial support of up to £15m
• Provide coaching, mentoring, and access to investors
• Promote applications from startups and SMEs with female CEOs

The Health Foundation partners with the NHS to promote digital health

The Q community is a division of the Health Foundation. It’s a network consisting of thousands of people across the UK and Ireland collaborating to improve the safety and quality of healthcare. In line with market trends worldwide, one of the top UK product funding opportunities for 2023 receiving a lot of attention is technology-enabled care programs.

As we highlighted in our article on the transformational potential of IoT in healthcare, the digital healthcare market is growing at an average annual rate of 24.5% every year, with devices such as remote patient monitoring, treatment, and diagnostics tools in high demand.

If you’re in this sector and have an excellent idea for which you would like to get funding, the Q community has £800m, of which successful bids are awarded £40,000. This year, their focus is on reducing delays – and doing so sustainably and equitably. Apply if you have a tech solution that will:

• Redesign care to best use the time and skills of those using and providing healthcare services
• Improve how patients and users access services
• Improve how waiting lists are prioritised and managed
• Improve workforce collaboration

The Flight Story Fund is looking for Unicorns worth upto £8.1m investment

Launched by the Dragons’ Den’s newest and youngest Dragon, Steven Bartlett, the Flight Story Fund is one of the top UK funding opportunities for 2023 to keep on your radar. It will invest between £810,000 ($1m) and £8.1m ($10m) in high-growth companies across six emerging sectors: blockchain, biotech, health and wellbeing, commerce, technology and space.

“Flight Story Fund connects the founders to the investment and tools they need to catapult them through their growth trajectory to accelerate their timeline to unicorn status. I’ve been on the journey myself and now I am helping other skilled founders succeed in the same way.” – Steven Bartlett, CEO

To apply for investment, use the online portal to send a message directly.

Which of these UK product funding opportunities for 2023 will you apply for?

If you’ve already decided which of these UK funding opportunities for 2023 suits your best, remember not to jump the gun. While some grants allow you to apply as many times as you like, others will only give you one shot – so take your time to get it right and avoid making these common mistakes.

Remember that receiving funding or investment isn’t the only way to get a cash flow boost. Did you know that you can claim corporation tax relief on your Research and Development? If you can demonstrate that you put R&D into developing and innovating a project in science and technology, you can claim up to 33% back of your costs – even if your project was unsuccessful.

We hope you found this post helpful and will let us know if/when you win!