Funding ·
Innovate UK opens £150m DRIVE35 fund for zero emission vehicle manufacturing
UK registered firms can bid for a share of up to £150 million to scale up production of batteries, zero emission vehicles and supply chain tech, with applications open from 4 November 2026.
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- Tech · 5 Nov IPO unveils overhaul of UK designs system to protect small studios from copycats
- Tech · 5 Nov Home Office to introduce new watchdog and laws for police facial recognition use
- Tech · 5 Nov Cyber Security and Resilience Bill heads to Parliament: what firms need to know so far
- Tech · 5 Nov NCSC warns UK critical infrastructure could face AI-powered ransomware attack by 2028
IPO unveils overhaul of UK designs system to protect small studios from copycats
New powers will let the IPO reject bad-faith design filings and give independent designers a cheaper route to court, as part of reforms affecting 80,000 UK design businesses. Tech · 5 Nov 2026Home Office to introduce new watchdog and laws for police facial recognition use
New legislation will require police facial recognition systems to be independently tested for bias, with a watchdog able to halt non-compliant forces. Tech · 5 Nov 2026Cyber Security and Resilience Bill heads to Parliament: what firms need to know so far
DSIT has published factsheets on its new cyber security bill, but UK firms will need to watch for further detail on who exactly it covers.Across the tech desk
The latest across UK technology, startups and scaleups Funding
- Innovate UK opens £1.5m quantum tech funding call with Netherlands
- British Business Bank commits up to £46m to a pre-seed deep tech fund aiming to create 80 companies
- Innovate UK is offering sensing SMEs a flat £80,420 grant at 100% funding, closing 7 October
- Innovate UK opens a £12m materials call covering power electronics, 6G and metamaterials, closing 28 October
Founders
- Companies House confirms software-only accounts filing from April 2028 but pauses profit and loss filing for small firms
- Government consultation on data intermediaries closes tonight after an extension
Scaleups
- Government launches Scale UK Connect pilot to keep 200 scale-ups growing at home
- DSIT publishes UK CertifID trust mark rules and promises action over unauthorised use
- DSIT study puts UK semiconductor revenues at £10.6bn, with 24 companies taking three quarters of it
- Synectics wins £1.4m of bus surveillance contracts for a UK regional authority
Exits
- MedPal AI finalises eMARx purchase price at about £446,633, below its July estimate
- Pri0r1ty buys Pirkx out of administration for £50,000 and a capped royalty
AI
- UK startup deepmirror named in TIME's Best Inventions 2026 list
- DSIT publishes annual UK AI sector study for 2025
- Government rolls out AI tool and rule change to speed up planning decisions
- Basingstoke distributor Hammer adds Swedish sovereign AI platform Eggsplain for its EMEA channel partners
Tech
- NCSC warns UK critical infrastructure could face AI-powered ransomware attack by 2028
- Barnsley care workers and builders to get AI training in £800,000 government pilot
- IPO warns of mercury and methanol in fake beauty products as young buyers knowingly choose fakes
- Government cuts Cyber Essentials fees by 75% for UK small businesses
Guides
How UK startup funding, equity and exits work, explained.
67 plain-English explainers, kept apart from the news.
All guides →- RAG-based AI startups: the due diligence questions investors actually askAI
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