TechBio goes mainstream: new BIA report shows it accounts for 40% of UK biotech deals
The UK BioIndustry Association’s (BIA) annual report, TechBio: Future-ready biology, published today, confirms a major structural shift in the UK life sciences sector: TechBio has moved from a niche field to the mainstream. This approach, which merges data, AI, and biotechnology to accelerate innovation, consistently accounted for over 40% of all UK biotech deals in recent years, demonstrating its central role in future growth.
This period of sector maturation is anchored by over £2.6 billion in total capital secured by TechBio companies between 2020 and 2024. This investment, comprising £1.5 billion in venture capital and major public listings, provided undeniable validation that UK science is creating world-class value through landmark events such as the £489.6 million acquisition of Exscientia by Recursion and substantial follow-on funding secured by leading platforms like Oxford Nanopore and BenevolentAI. Growth in 2025 has been highlighted by major funding rounds from companies like Isomorphic Labs and CHARM Therapeutics, alongside NVIDIA’s commitment to recognising the UK’s strengths and empowering the next wave of AI innovation.
Focus on future growth: Addressing the scale-up gap
While celebrating the UK's high volume of early-stage innovation, the report provides a realism check by identifying the “scale-up gap” as the next strategic challenge. This gap is defined by the limited number of domestic Series B+ deals and the reliance on overseas capital, highlighting the essential need to mobilise greater pools of domestic, later-stage funding. The journey from proof-of-concept to commercial endurance remains the sector’s defining challenge.
This strategic imperative for domestic scale-up capital has been further validated by clear government alignment through Industrial Strategy. The BIA welcomes the prominent features of TechBio in the recent Life Sciences Sector Plan and 10-Year Health Plan, which set out how better use of the NHS's world-leading data, combined with advances in AI and precision medicine, can fundamentally improve patient outcomes and provide growth for the UK. Crucially, the BIA strongly champions pension reform to boost investment into UK innovation, as highlighted by Science Minister Lord Vallance this month.
Jane Wall, Managing Director of the BIA, commented:
Key for the UK as a whole is that we have an opportunity to advance productivity and growth through the technological advances in artificial intelligence, life sciences and robotics that we celebrate in TechBio – if we are able to grasp this opportunity for the UK, if the government is able to continue on what it has promised in the Sector Plans through consistent implementation, then the potential will be truly transformative for the UK and beyond.
As such the BIA will continue to call for health data infrastructure as a national priority, capital at scale, attracting world-beating talent and an improved commercial environment for life science companies in the UK.
