In Innovate UK’s recently published plan for action for business innovation, the focus is on building the future economy.
The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is one of the delivery partners that helps businesses operating in defence and security. Our mission is to find and fund exploitable innovation to support UK defence and security quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity.
DASA has worked closely with Innovate UK to align agendas and will support the 12 commitments to innovating UK businesses that were announced in its plan for action.
One way that DASA does this is through the dedicated A2MF team who help to support the building of the business behind the innovative ideas.
Credit: Defence and Security Accelerator
Working together: build your business with the A2MF team
The A2MF service was introduced in 2021 to work closely with innovators and understand their business needs and aspirations.
It is closely aligned to Innovate UK’s commitment to help build local strengths and help companies benefit from them.
The A2MF team is regionally based so will work closely with the local innovation and business support ecosystems including Innovate UK EDGE and Innovate UK KTN.
The A2MF partners will focus on helping the innovators become market, funder and strategic supplier ready, to help pull ideas through towards commercialisation.
Each innovator they work with has a unique history and experience of working in defence and security, from being completely new to the sector to having engaged before, or somewhere in between.
The A2MF team supports organisations of any age, stage, size, or sector. They use their extensive collective experience of supporting company’s growth and strategy, to provide a bespoke package of support.
This includes:
Business mentoring
working one-to-one with innovators to understand the obstacles in the way of business growth and to provide insight on how to develop their organisation into a viable company for investment, partnering and procurement
Market entry guidance
helping innovators to understand the buying landscape, identify potential barriers to entry and develop their ‘go to market’ plan for addressable market segments
Access to funding
demystifying the funding landscape and supporting innovators in accessing the funding required to grow and scale as a business.
That’s not all! As well as one-to-one support, the A2MF team is developing a range of alternative sources of funding for innovators. These aim to plug vital funding gaps that are often tricky to overcome. Meet the A2MF team.
Commercialise your innovation with Defence Innovation Loans
One funding opportunity that has recently launched is the Defence Innovation Loans. Innovate UK supported DASA to launch this funding model, which has £10 million to lend for innovative defence solutions.
What are Defence Innovation Loans? The Defence Innovation Loan provides an excellent opportunity to apply for affordable funds to help you commercialise your defence solutions. It is accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises, and has a below market interest rate of 7.4% per annum.
Video credit: DASA
Learn more about Defence Innovations Loans by watching our 24 January webinar on YouTube.
Pitch to investors at the Investment Showcase
Each year, innovators whose ideas have developed to the stage where they are looking for equity investment have the chance to compete to be selected to pitch their businesses and novel technological ideas at DASA’s Annual Investor Showcase.
The businesses receive dedicated training and support to develop a compelling pitch deck tailored to the investor audience.
Get involved with DASA
We are looking forward to helping even more innovators commercialise their novel ideas. If you have a mature solution for a defence or security challenge and are looking for additional business support, contact DASA today.
If you would like to know more or to speak to a member of the team please email: a2mf@dasa.service.mod.uk
Further information
You can go to the DASA website
You can connect with Alan Scrase on LinkedIn
You can connect with Tracey North on LinkedIn
Connect with Innovate UK on LinkedIn
Follow Innovate UK on Facebook
You can go to the new Innovate UK website
You can go to the Innovate UK EDGE website
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Top image: Credit: megaflopp, Getty Images
Alan has led the Access to Finance and Mentoring service for the last two and a half years and enjoys supporting our innovators.
Prior to joining the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), Alan was the Manager at SETsquared at the University of Southampton Business Incubation Centre where he supported and guided members to deliver growth and innovation.
He has also run a successful small and medium-sized enterprise business and worked for Business Link.
He was closely associated with a wide range of regional and economic development projects and programmes, and uses this experience and knowledge to help DASA support its innovators.
Tracey has over 34 years of experience in the banking and finance sector as a Business Relationship Manger.
Tracey looked after a portfolio of clients and all their business needs, not just financial, assisting small and medium-sized enterprises in growing their businesses and realising their aspirations.
She has a sound understanding of the challenges innovators face and the hurdles they have to overcome to commercialise their ideas, and is well placed to support them on their growth journey.