Spotlight on Spinouts 2026: UK University Spinouts, Funding and Regional Clusters (HSBC Innovation Banking)

Summary

• More than 2000 spinouts have emerged from UK universities since 2010, with a value of £49 billion.p.5
• These spinouts have created 27,000 jobs, with 70% of these created since 2020.p.5
• UK-based spinouts raised £1.3 billion in VC funding in 2025, the lowest figure since 2021.p.10
• The conversion rate from seed to Series A for UK spinouts is 28.3%, slightly higher than the 27.1% for the rest of the tech sector.p.14
• The average university equity stake has fallen to a historic low of 16%.p.3

Key insights

1. Two of the six $1 billion+ exits of European spinouts were from UK universities, OrganOx and Oxford Ionics.p.8
2. Parkwalk Advisors participated in 131 equity funding deals since 2020, contributing to deals worth £1.1 billion.p.11
3. UK spinouts have been awarded nearly 1100 grants amounting to nearly £680 million since 2020.p.12
4. 278 VC-backed companies spun out since 2010 in the largest sector, Biotech and Pharma, are worth over £20.7 billion.p.15
5. Oxford and Cambridge each produced over 120 VC-backed spinouts.p.4
6. Draig Therapeutics from Cardiff University raised a £107m Series A round, the largest UK spinout financing of the year.p.10