Budgets don’t usually feel like product updates. But this one gets unusually close to the term sheets and option pools that founders live inside every day. Some even got to see it early, albeit not intentionally. As with every budget, it’s not going to fall in favour of every founder or fund, but it’s certainly an improvement on last Autumn’s announcements.
Across a few dense paragraphs, the UK Budget 2025 quietly does three things that matter if you’re building a business here: it asks founders what’s broken in the tax system, it lifts the ceilings on some of the main early-stage capital tools, and it lets more scale-ups keep using EMI to hire and retain. This is also one of the first Budgets that has so directly addressed “founders” with an additional policy paper aimed squarely at entrepreneurs.
As our CEO and co-founder Dame Anne Glover puts it, “The Chancellor’s Autumn Budget set out a vision for the UK as a global hub for innovation… a place where start-ups can thrive and investors can have confidence in long-term growth.”
No slogans. Just a bit more room to raise, a bit more room to grant, and an open door to say what should change next. Perhaps an unexpectedly refreshing approach towards entrepreneurship in the UK, along with a call for direct feedback. But it’s not good news for everyone, and our VCT friends will be left with questions.
Bigger EIS/VCT headroom for real scale-up rounds
The Budget recognises a truth the ecosystem has been living with for a while: the existing EIS and VCT frameworks do a good job at the earliest stages, then gradually become a constraint just as companies hit genuine scale.
From April 2026, that ceiling moves up.
- Higher annual and lifetime limits mean companies — especially knowledge intensive ones — can raise larger EIS/VCT-backed rounds before aging out of the schemes.
- Higher gross asset thresholds give more space for asset-heavy or infrastructure-heavy models to keep using these tools as they grow.
- The tweak comes with a trade-off: VCT income tax relief steps down from 30% to 20%, rebalancing investor incentives while still signalling support for capital flowing into venture-backed growth. However, this is not positive news for those running VCTs.
This sits alongside the earlier decision to extend the Enterprise Investment Scheme to 2035, which Anne calls “a particularly important move, providing the certainty and stability that both entrepreneurs and investors need to build and scale high-growth businesses in the UK.”
Combined with continued R&D funding and renewed support for Horizon Europe, the direction of travel is towards a more predictable, science- and innovation-driven capital stack.
If you’re running a capital-intensive business, those extra metres of headroom can be the difference between doing one more substantial EIS-eligible round from the UK or looking elsewhere for later-stage capital.
EMI that doesn’t stop when you graduate from start-up
On the talent side, the signal is similar: keep more growing companies inside the tent.
EMI has long been one of the UK’s sharpest tools for giving early employees meaningful equity on a tax-efficient basis — but only if you stayed under relatively tight size tests.
From April 2026, the scheme stretches:
- Company eligibility expands: more employees, higher asset thresholds.
- The total EMI option pool per company increases, giving room for a bigger, more widely distributed equity plan as your team scales.
- The maximum holding period lengthens, including for existing options, which can make long-term value creation feel more realistic for senior hires.
- Administrative friction nudges down with the removal of the notification requirement a year later.
What doesn’t change is the individual cap: the Budget leaves personal EMI limits untouched. This is about company-level eligibility and pool size, not mega-grants to a handful of people.
For founders, the practical takeaway is simple: you can stay in EMI longer, with more people in the plan, and a bit less admin overhead as you grow.
A founder voice in how tax actually works
Finally, The government has opened a Call for Evidence on Tax Support for entrepreneurs, explicitly inviting feedback from business founders, scaling firms and investors.
This is not a cosmetic “have your say” page. It’s a structured request for examples of where incentives like EIS, VCT and EMI work, where they block you, and what would make it easier to start, scale and stay in the UK.
For founders, that matters because the next iteration of the rules will be shaped by whoever actually shows up with concrete stories: rounds that nearly fell over because of timing; hires you couldn’t make because of scheme complexity; expansion plans that didn’t fit the thresholds.
The call for evidence closes at midday on 28 February 2026 and you can respond online here. This is one of the few points where that feedback loop is open. We should all be using it.
Why this matters for founders now
These measures arrive in a market where every extra bit of flexibility helps:
- Funding strategy: You get more structural room to design UK-based funding paths that go beyond a single “EIS round and done”
- Talent strategy: You can keep using a familiar equity playbook as you cross from start-up into scale-up, rather than replacing schemes when you hit an arbitrary threshold.
- Policy strategy: The Call for Evidence is a live chance to push for fixes that aren’t in this Budget yet — from simplifying rules to better aligning incentives for repeat founders and long-term employees.
Taken together, this isn’t a revolution. But it is a nudge towards a UK environment where policy lines up more closely with how high-growth companies raise, hire, and execute.
For now, the actionable steps are straightforward: talk to your advisors about how these timelines intersect with your next round and hiring plan and consider adding your voice — individually or via industry bodies — to the evidence going back to the Treasury.
Read on for more news from our portfolio and partners across Intelligence, Human, and Planet this month.
Intelligence
A strong start to Slush. Day one began with our cybersecurity breakfast with founders, operators and investors (with eCapital, OTB Ventures, 360 Capital and Kibo Ventures). See the photos.
Three in Sifted’s AI 100 with PolyAI at number six. PolyAI, V7 and UnlikelyAI are recognised, and Amadeus appears in Sifted’s Top 100 Investors.
Read the report.
Slamcore Aware in two minutes. A clear video shows vision based, real time positioning for industrial vehicles. Watch the explainer.
Amelia’s picks in Sifted’s 16 UK AI startups to watch. Amadeus Partner Amelia Armour highlights Cascade and Trismik as ones to watch, with 38 UK companies in the AI 100. Read the feature.
Skycore Semiconductors raises €5m. We led the round through the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund to help power AI data centres as they move from 54V to 800V HVDC. Learn more.
Quantum needs scale not slogans. Manjari Chandran Ramesh in Foresight on the gap in large growth rounds and why corporate pilots unlock real demand. Read the piece.
Riverlane QEC Report 2025. QEC becomes the priority, public commitments reach about $50bn and the market is forecast to grow about 24 percent a year to 2030. Read the report.
Paragraf joins Sifted Future 50. Recognition for fast, revenue driven execution built on proprietary technology. See the list.
Human
The Guardian spotlights a UK life sciences reset. Patrick Vallance said officials are working day and night to resolve the NHS drug pricing standoff and rebuild trust with pharma. Amadeus CEO, Dame Anne Glover added that even a half percent of UK pension assets into venture would transform the market. Read the piece.
Investing in the future of life sciences. Dame Anne joined a fireside on spotting high potential science, de risking early innovation, and attracting capital at seed and Series A, with a keynote from Constructive Bio’s Prof Jason Chin. See the recap.
Deploying AI at scale in European healthcare. Partner Pierre Socha shares a practical playbook for founders focused on augmentation, interoperability, trust and outcomes to move from pilot to repeatable value. Read the blog.
Planet
Sovereign resilience is a software and systems brief. Defence now spans AI, cybersecurity, cloud, edge and energy — with programmes like NSSIF and the NATO Innovation Fund opening clearer routes to market. Amadeus Partner Nick Kingsbury explains what sovereign resilience is, why it matters now, and how founders and investors can engage responsibly. Read the piece.
Sustainable packaging needs deep tech not slogans. Partner Amelia Armour argues for materials engineered to biodegrade like Xampla’s Morro as a drop in replacement film already rolling out with major partners. The winners will match performance and economics while staying invisible to the end user. Read the piece.
News from the team
House of Lords discussion on access and inclusion. Dame Anne Glover joined Baroness Martha Lane Fox and Vicky Pryce at qodeo’s summit to talk opening networks, the realities for female founders, and the Europe–US scale gap. A clear call for practical fixes over platitudes. Read the recap.
Europe has ideas but needs the infrastructure to scale them. Amadeus Partner Manjari Chandran Ramesh in EE Times Europe argues the issue is not ambition but late stage capital, weaker public markets and too few industrial buyers. Pragmatic exits remain the default while we strengthen the system. Read the article.
Recognised among the top UK deep tech investors The Royal Academy of Engineering’s State of UK Deep Tech 2025 names Amadeus in the top 15. The report highlights a late stage funding gap, the role of US capital at growth, and the need for patient capital and procurement that buys innovation—and a quote from CEO. Download the report.
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