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The UK’s home for tokenised equity. Independent news, insight and resources for founders raising capital, investors deploying it, and the firms supporting both — as the regulation, infrastructure and opportunity converge.

Innovate UK Opens a £33m Quantum Hardware Competition. For Deeptech Founders, Non Dilutive Capital Is Worth Chasing.

  • Writer: Shawn Jhanji
    Shawn Jhanji
  • Jul 2
  • 3 min read

When the conversation turns to how founders raise money, it almost always turns to equity.


Hundreds of startup founders launch from the starting line of a bright athletics track, symbolising the race to secure non-dilutive Innovate UK grant funding. A futuristic quantum research building and technology-inspired elements in the background represent deeptech, quantum hardware innovation, and the urgency of acting before the funding deadline.

Who led the round, at what valuation, on what terms. It is worth pausing on the quieter alternative, because on 29 June a new pot of it opened. Innovate UK is inviting UK registered organisations to apply for a share of up to 33 million pounds to build device level hardware and the software that runs it, aimed at the scale, programmability and runtime performance that universal fault tolerant quantum computers will need.


The competition opened on 29 June and closes on 18 September 2026.


The specific technology matters less than the mechanism. This is grant funding, and grant funding is non dilutive. A founder who wins a share of this money gives away no equity, no board seat and no liquidation preference to get it. For an early company, that is not a minor accounting distinction. It is the difference between funding a critical piece of research and development on your own terms and selling a slice of the company to do it.


That is why non dilutive capital sits squarely within this publication's interest in how founders build and who holds power in a capitalised company. The structural problem in early stage funding is well documented. Equity capital is unevenly distributed, concentrated in a handful of networks, and founders outside those networks, whether by geography, background or simply who they know, raise less and give away more to get it.


Grants do not solve that on their own. But they are one of the few routes where the decision rests on the quality and ambition of the work rather than on a warm introduction, and they let a founder reach a later, stronger position before they ever have to negotiate with an equity investor.


The practical detail founders need is simple. The funding is open to UK registered organisations. The scope is device level quantum hardware and associated software. Applications opened on 29 June and the window closes on 18 September 2026, which is a genuine deadline rather than a rolling one, so a serious bid needs to start now. Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, runs a steady stream of these competitions across sectors, and the discipline of watching for them and applying is an underused skill among founders who default to thinking capital only comes from investors.


There is a longer arc here too. Non dilutive grants and dilutive equity are not rivals. Used well, they compose. A founder who funds early technical risk with grant money reaches the point of raising equity with more proof, more ownership retained and more leverage in the room. As tokenised equity and secondary trading through the UK's new private market infrastructure make it easier to raise incrementally and later, the founders who benefit most will be the ones who delayed dilution as long as they sensibly could. A grant competition is one of the plainest ways to do that. It is worth chasing.


This piece is general information for founders, not financial advice. Eligibility and terms are set by Innovate UK and applicants should check the competition guidance directly.


Key takeaways

  • Innovate UK opened a competition on 29 June offering a share of up to 33 million pounds for device level quantum computing hardware and software, closing 18 September 2026.

  • The funding is non dilutive, meaning founders give away no equity, no board seat and no preference to access it.

  • Grants reward the quality of the work rather than network access, making them a route that is structurally fairer to founders outside the usual funding circles.

  • Non dilutive grants and equity compose well. Funding early risk with grants lets founders raise later, stronger and with more ownership intact.


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