Growth That Doesn’t Cut Corners<\/a><\/p>\n“There is a real opportunity for the government to continue supporting startups by enhancing education around eligibility, compliance and practical steps to making a claim,” Sandhu explains. Better guidance, in other words, could unlock millions in growth potential.<\/p>\n
EmpowerRD recently helped the global intelligence platform Streetbees streamline its own R&D tax claim – with eye-catching results. “Streetbees has seen over 170% growth in claim value, avoided HMRC compliance checks entirely, and reduced manual and administrative effort,” he notes. “This has allowed them to confidently plan their next stages of expansion.”<\/p>\n
It’s this kind of outcome that Sandhu says should be the norm – not the exception – for early-stage firms. “One of the biggest benefits of the R&D Tax Credit Scheme is that it provides non-dilutive funding – allowing businesses like Streetbees to recover a portion of their R&D expenditure without giving up equity, or part of their business,” he says.<\/p>\n
However, navigating the system is getting harder. “Recent changes to eligibility, rates, and compliance processes mean that even well-established startups risk missing out if claims aren’t properly managed,” Sandhu warns. “With tighter deadlines and more scrutiny, startups must prioritise staying organised, documenting R&D work clearly, and getting specialist support where needed.”<\/p>\n
Government support, he argues, is only one part of the puzzle. Startups also need access to venture capital, talent, and expert networks. “Access to expertise and specialised resources plays a significant role,” Sandhu says. “Fostering these partnerships between startups and large companies or even academic institutions will help speed up innovation.”<\/p>\n
The UK government recently pledged \u00a313.9bn in R&D funding, a move Sandhu welcomes \u2014 but he cautions that scale is only one metric of success. “To build on this, having a simplified process of expanding into international markets would make it easier for UK-based organisations to scale globally,” he says. “Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation \u2013 having stronger government incentives could do more to help companies.”<\/p>\n
And in a global race for the brightest minds, immigration policy and talent attraction must be front and centre. “Startups need access to the best talent in the globe,” he says. “The UK should continue to position itself as a place where this set of talent could succeed… and a system that supports long-term, sustainable growth.”<\/p>\n
In short, Sandhu sees plenty of promise in the UK’s innovation landscape – but also believes it’s time to strip away the friction and make growth easier, faster and smarter for the entrepreneurs powering the next generation of British business.<\/p>\n
Related: <\/b>Don’t Be the Bottleneck: How Two Startup Founders Scaled Fast – Without Burning Out Their Business<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You’re reading Entrepreneur United Kingdom, an international franchise of Entrepreneur…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,3187,4884,3186,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-75448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-entrepreneurs","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-growth-strategies","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114453094297661701","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}