UK nanotechnology companies raised £148m across 40 deals in 2025 — the third consecutive year above £148m and a sustained plateau just below the sector’s pandemic-era peak of £190m in 2022. In total, nanotechnology companies in the UK have raised £1.09b across all equity fundraisings tracked by Beauhurst, with 78% of that total arriving since the start of 2020. The sector has opened 2026 with £30.4m raised through the first quarter.
We’ve ranked the top 50 nanotechnology companies by total equity raised (all data sourced from the Beauhurst platform).
An overview of the nanotechnology sector
Nanotechnology covers the engineering, manipulation, and application of materials and structures at the nanometre scale — typically between 1 and 100 nanometres. UK nanotechnology companies span a remarkable range of end markets, from advanced materials such as graphene and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) through to nano-coatings, super-resolution microscopy and imaging tools, drug delivery systems, biosensors, energy storage components, photovoltaic technology, carbon capture materials, and quantum photonics hardware.
Beauhurst tracks 157 active nanotechnology companies in the UK, up from 70 in the final quarter of 2015 — a 124% increase over the decade. Together, these companies have raised £1.09b, with £848m of that arriving since 2020 (78% of the sector’s all-time total). The 19 companies reporting full financials generated £866m in turnover, and the sector supports an estimated 4,988 employees across the UK.
Key findings
- Lightcast tops the ranking with £103m raised. The East of England-based company develops technology to manipulate cells for drug discovery, and accounts for 9.5% of all UK nanotechnology equity raised to date.
- P2i (£100m, South East) takes second place with liquid-repellent nano-coatings for electronics and medical devices, followed by Oxford Nanoimaging (£84.1m, South East) in super-resolution microscopy, Biodexa Pharmaceuticals (£76.0m, Wales) in nano-formulated treatments for high-unmet-need conditions, and Infinitesima (£52.4m, South East) in nano-scale 3D imaging for biotechnology and manufacturing inspection. The top five account for 38% of all equity raised in UK nanotechnology.
- The East of England hosts 12 of the top 50 — the only sector in our series where it leads, reflecting the depth of the Cambridge research and spinout ecosystem. London (nine) and the South East (10) follow, with the South West (four), North West (three), and a long tail of single-company representations across both Scottish regional codes plus Tayside, the North East, Northern Ireland, Yorkshire and The Humber, the West Midlands, and Wales. The top 50 spans 13 UK regions in total.
- Venture-stage businesses dominate the top 50 (28), followed by growth-stage (10) and seed-stage (eight), with just two established companies, one zombie, and one dead. The two mature names make nanotechnology the most early-stage top 50 of any sector we’ve analysed — a reflection of how recently most of these spinouts have moved from university lab to commercial scale.
- The top 50 collectively raised £809m — 74% of the sector’s all-time total.
