
Growth Catalyst Early Stage: New Innovators
This pilot round of Growth Catalyst is for early-stage micro and small (pre-seed) startups on their initial journey to develop and validate technical and commercial elements of their innovation. Other Growth Catalyst pilots, potentially in other domains, are planned to run later this year.
Applications are open from 7 July 2025 and close on 6 August 2025 at 11am.
It is for startups working in any of the following five areas from the government’s frontier technologies:
- Advanced connectivity technologies (formerly called future telecoms)
- Artificial intelligence
- Engineering biology
- Quantum technologies
- Semiconductors
This pilot funds projects which run for 3-6 months, to be completed by 30 April 2026. Your project’s total costs and grant funding request must be between £25,000 and £50,000.
A pre-recorded briefing is available to view, with downloadable slides, and a suitability checker – all details available in the below link