United Kingdom startup ecosystem
The UK — and London in particular — remains Europe's deepest capital market for startups. World-class universities, a strong financial services sector, and a dense network of experienced operators make it a magnet for fintech, AI, and biotech ventures. Despite Brexit-related shifts, the UK continues to produce more unicorns than any other European country. The directory currently lists 306 organisations across 20 cities.
Showing 41–60 of 306 United Kingdom
Cities in United Kingdom
Types in United Kingdom
United Kingdom results
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Cazoo
Cazoo was a London-based online used car platform founded in 2018 by Alex Chesterman, the serial entrepreneur behind Zoopla and LoveFilm. The company aimed to bring the Carvana model to Europe, allowing consumers to buy, finance, and have used cars delivered to their door. Cazoo went public via SPAC on the NYSE in 2021 at a valuation of around $7 billion and expanded aggressively into France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. However, rapid cash burn and a cooling market led to a retreat from continental Europe and a delisting from the NYSE in 2024. Cazoo's trajectory became a cautionary tale in European tech about the risks of capital-intensive consumer marketplaces scaling too fast.
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Checkout.com
Checkout.com is a London-headquartered payments infrastructure company that provides a unified API for online payment processing, supporting card payments, local payment methods, and payouts across 150+ currencies. The company serves enterprise merchants including Klarna, Coinbase, Sony, and Grab, and was valued at $40 billion at its peak in 2022. Checkout.com competes directly with Adyen and Stripe in the enterprise payments space.
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Cisco Live Europe 2027
Cisco Live Europe moves from Amsterdam to London for 2027, running 8-12 February with registration now open. The large-scale IT and networking conference features training labs, cloud infrastructure sessions, and the World of Solutions expo, with a DevNet Zone relevant for developer founders and platform integrations.
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CityFibre
CityFibre is a full-fiber digital infrastructure scale-up building wholesale fiber networks across the UK. The company partners with ISPs and mobile operators to replace legacy connectivity with gigabit-capable infrastructure that supports residential broadband, enterprise services, and future smart-city and 5G capacity.
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Cleo
Cleo is a London-based fintech founded in 2016 that offers an AI-powered money assistant delivered as a chat app, helping mostly younger users in the US and UK budget, save, manage debt and improve their financial health through conversational nudges and cash-advance features. It reached unicorn status on the back of rapid US growth.
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Clinical Accelerator
Clinical Accelerator is a Contract Research Organization (CRO) specializing in early-stage medical device clinical trials, with a focus on First-in-Human and Early Feasibility studies. The organization conducts clinical research across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, serving 100+ medical technology sponsors globally. Headquartered in Douglas, Isle of Man, it annually organizes the Georgia MedTech Innovation Summit (GMIS) in Tbilisi, convening physicians, investors, industry leaders, and medtech entrepreneurs around cardiovascular and interventional medicine innovation.
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CloserStill Media
Global B2B events organiser headquartered in London, running technology and marketing shows including eCommerce Expo, Technology for Marketing, Tech Show London and Big Data & AI World. CloserStill Media produces market-leading exhibitions connecting solution providers with enterprise and SME buyers.
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Cloudsmith
Cloud-native artifact and package management platform providing a single source of truth for packages, containers and ML models across 30+ formats, with supply-chain security and global edge distribution. Founded 2016.
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CodeBase
CodeBase is the UK's largest technology incubator, founded in Edinburgh in 2014 and now operating across 27 locations throughout the UK, including a hub in Glasgow. It delivers the Scottish Government's £42 million Techscaler programme, supporting over 1,400 startups with world-class education, mentorship, and networking. Companies supported by CodeBase have collectively raised over £4 billion in funding, making it one of the most impactful startup accelerator organisations in the UK.
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Commercial Vehicle Show 2026
UK's largest road transport and commercial vehicle event at NEC Birmingham, attracting fleet operators, logistics companies, and vehicle manufacturers. Free with registration. Covers fleet telematics, EV commercial vehicles, and logistics optimization. Valuable for mobility and logistics startups targeting fleet management and last-mile delivery operations.
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Commercial Vehicle Show 2027
CV Show 2027 runs 20-22 April at the NEC Birmingham, bringing together 350+ exhibitors covering new vehicles, emerging technology and operational solutions for the commercial vehicle industry. The show is a key venue for fleet operators, manufacturers and mobility tech providers seeking industry connections.
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Conrad Ford
Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Allica Bank, the UK SME-focused challenger bank. A serial fintech founder who previously built and led Funding Options before joining Allica, he is an announced 2026 speaker at the Open Banking Expo UK & Europe in London.
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Currencycloud
Cross-border payments and multi-currency API infrastructure for banks, fintechs and FX brokers. Acquired by Visa in 2021 but still operates its own standalone brand and website.
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CuspAI
CuspAI is a frontier AI company building a generative-AI search engine for materials that accelerates the discovery and design of new molecules and engineered materials. Users specify desired properties (for example, selective CO2 binding for carbon capture), and the platform generates, evaluates, and optimises synthesisable candidate structures. It combines generative foundation models, deep learning, and molecular and scientific simulation, targeting applications across carbon capture, water purification, energy storage, catalysis, and industrial chemistry. The company was co-founded in 2024 by Dr Chad Edwards (CEO) and Prof Max Welling (CTO), and is headquartered in Cambridge.
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Cyber Security & Cloud Expo Global 2026
Expo and conference at ExCeL London focused on cloud security, zero-trust architecture, and enterprise cyber resilience, co-located with major tech expos. Attracts CISOs, IT security teams, and solution buyers. Free expo passes available; paid passes about GBP 499-1099. Relevant for cybersecurity startups seeking enterprise and government clients.
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Cyber Security & Cloud Expo Global 2027
Cyber Security & Cloud Expo Global 2027 runs 3-4 February at Olympia London as part of TechEx Global. The show covers application and cloud security, hybrid cloud, data protection, identity and access management, threat intelligence and DevSecOps, drawing CISOs and security leaders from finance, retail, healthcare and government.
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CyberUK 2026
UK government's flagship cybersecurity event in Glasgow, organized by NCSC and attracting 2,000+ security professionals from government, defence, and enterprise sectors. Tickets cost about GBP 400-800. Covers national cyber strategy, threat intelligence, and resilience frameworks. Essential for govtech and infosec startups selling to public sector buyers.
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Danny Rimer
Partner at Index Ventures, based in London, and one of Europe's most influential technology investors. He has led or backed Discord, Dropbox, Figma, DeepL, Etsy and Supercell, and topped the Forbes Midas List Europe in 2025. He has been central to Index's transatlantic consumer and design-led software franchise.
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Darktrace
Darktrace is a cybersecurity company founded in 2013 in Cambridge by mathematicians from the University of Cambridge alongside former intelligence professionals. The company pioneered the use of self-learning AI for cyber defense, modeling the immune system to detect novel threats and anomalous behavior across enterprise networks, cloud, email, and operational technology. Darktrace listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2021 and was later acquired by Thoma Bravo in 2024 in a deal valuing the company at approximately $5.3 billion. Its products serve over 8,000 organizations globally.
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Data Centre Congress 2026
Data centre infrastructure conference at ExCeL London exploring sustainable facilities, cloud infrastructure, and edge compute solutions. Brings together data centre operators, cloud providers, and infrastructure investors. Co-located with major tech expos for cross-sector networking. Relevant for startups in cooling tech, energy optimization, and edge computing.
