Why FundingAtlas exists

The problem

UK businesses can access hundreds of grants, tax incentives, loan guarantees, equity schemes and innovation programmes. In theory, that choice is a strength. In practice, the landscape is fragmented across dozens of government departments, agencies, devolved administrations, combined authorities and accredited delivery partners — each with its own portal, its own eligibility language and its own application cadence.

Founders, finance directors and operators routinely lose weeks chasing programmes that turn out to be out of scope, paused, or replaced. The cost is not just time — it is the funding people never apply for because they could not confidently identify it in the first place.

What we found when we mapped it

When we set out to catalogue UK business funding properly, we found hundreds of programmes spread across multiple providers, with materially different rules, regional restrictions and eligibility criteria. The same idea — "support for innovation", "support for exporters", "support for growth" — was implemented dozens of different ways depending on which department or agency was funding it.

• Different providers with overlapping remits.
• Different eligibility criteria for similar-looking programmes.
• Different funding instruments — grant, loan, guarantee, tax relief — for the same underlying activity.
• Different application timelines, assessment styles and evidence requirements.
• Different regional footprints across the four UK nations and English combined authorities.

Why we built FundingAtlas

FundingAtlas exists to be the single, trustworthy place to discover, compare and understand UK business funding. Every programme is sourced from an official provider, structured against a stable taxonomy and linked back to its source so anyone can verify the information before applying.

We are not a broker, we are not a referral network, and we do not take fees from funders. FundingAtlas is an independent information platform — the editorial separation matters, because it means we can describe programmes honestly, including their limitations.

Who FundingAtlas helps

• Startups — finding the right first funding round and understanding what comes after it.
• SMEs — identifying grants, tax relief and loan guarantees that fit their stage and sector.
• Scale-ups — sequencing larger programmes around their growth plan.
• Exporters — navigating UKEF guarantees, market-access support and trade programmes.
• Manufacturers — identifying Made Smarter, automation and capital schemes.
• Innovators — comparing Innovate UK competitions, KTPs and R&D tax relief.

The vision

Our vision is for FundingAtlas to become the UK's most useful funding intelligence platform — the reference founders, finance teams and advisors reach for first when they need to understand what funding exists, who it is for and how the pieces fit together.

How we work

How we source, verify, classify and review programmes is documented in our methodology and editorial standards. FundingAtlas is led by Michael Flanagan, who is also the named reviewer on cornerstone grants, comparisons and decision guides.