A former government minister has urged Scotland to get its “act together” after a major new report revealed that none of this year’s new UK deep-tech unicorns appear to be based in Scotland.
The Royal Academy of Engineering’s State of UK Deep Tech 2026 report says UK deep tech investment is on course to reach a record £12.8 billion this calendar year, with a new high of 13 unicorns emerging.
The UK retains its position as the world’s third-largest deep tech market, according to this week’s report, produced with Dealroom as data partner.
It values the UK deep tech ecosystem at £503 billion in total, and finds that AI accounts for 71% of UK deep tech venture investment.
Richard Lochhead, the former MSP and Scottish Government business minister, said on LinkedIn that the new unicorns all appear to be based in the so-called ‘Golden Triangle’ of London, Oxford and Cambridge.
“The scale of the scale up challenge couldn’t be clearer,” he wrote. “From a Scottish perspective, we should be concerned.”
He argued that, given Scotland’s expertise and leadership in many of the fields involved, the country needs to tackle its scaling-up challenges and the other factors behind them, “and fast”. He called for “an intense national conversation addressing the lack of Scottish deep tech unicorns”.
Lochhead said he had yet to digest the 96-page report fully. He also acknowledged that “there are great companies in Scotland and good things are happening”, but said the findings were “another reminder that we need to do better.”
Research published by Tracxn in August found that London hosts 14 of the UK’s 17 deep-tech unicorns. The Royal Academy of Engineering has also flagged the funding issue. In its response to this month’s UK Budget, it warned that “persistent growth capital gaps risk the loss of value created by our most innovative companies”.
Lochhead’s post tagged several of Scotland’s key players in the debate, including Technology Scotland, Scottish Financial Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce and Mark Logan, author of the Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review.
The Golden Triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge attracted 88% of UK deep-tech investment in 2026, the highest share on record, the report revealed, and the five biggest rounds all went to London-based AI companies.
Separate data from Tracxn suggests a similar pattern. Companies it lists as becoming deep-tech unicorns this year include London-based PhysicsX, Ineffable Intelligence, FluidStack and humanoid robotics firm Humanoid, as well as Cambridge battery company Nyobolt. Another London AI lab, Recursive Superintelligence, reached a valuation of $4.7 billion within months of being founded this year, according to Dealroom.
Scotland is the largest deep-tech ecosystem among the devolved nations, however, with $2.2 billion raised by 251 companies since 2020. But the report finds that while Scotland scores well above average for research intensity, it lags well behind on the capital its companies attract. Edinburgh and Glasgow’s shares of new UK deep-tech startups have also fallen since the 2010s.