UK startup grants and games funding in 2026
A UK software or game company has four realistic sources of public money in 2026: Innovate UK Smart Grants, the UK Games Fund, the Video Games Expenditure Credit at 34%, and the merged R&D credit at 20%. All four pay for building the product. None of them pays a penny toward selling it, which for most studios is the larger number.
Türkiye refunds half of what a software company or game studio spends on advertising, app store commissions and hosting when it sells to customers abroad, and up to 70% when those customers are in one of twenty target markets. It is paid in cash, against invoices you have already settled. Try it with your own numbers.
01What can a software company in United Kingdom claim?
| Programme | Type | What it pays | How long it takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Innovate UK Smart Grants | Competitive grant | Up to 70% of project costs, £100k to £1M projects | Months. Quarterly rounds, then assessment |
| UK Games Fund | Sector grant | £100,000 to £250,000 for commercial games | Months. EOI first, then full application |
| Video Games Expenditure Credit | Tax credit | 34% of up to 80% of core development costs | Arrives with your corporation tax return |
| Merged R&D expenditure credit | Tax credit | 20% of qualifying R&D spend, taxable | Arrives with your corporation tax return |
02Which grants can you apply for in United Kingdom?
2 of the 4 are competitive. You apply, you wait, and you might not get it. The upside is that the money is not tied to your tax position.
Innovate UK Smart Grants
Competitive grantRun by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation
The open, sector-agnostic grant competition. Any UK company with a genuinely novel project can apply, software and games included, and rounds run quarterly.
| Project size | £100,000 to £500,000 total project costs for a 6 to 18 month project, and £100,000 to £1 million for 19 to 24 monthssource |
|---|---|
| Share funded | Up to 70% of eligible costs for a micro or small company on feasibility studies and industrial research, and up to 45% on experimental development closer to marketsource |
| Who can apply | UK-registered companies carrying out the work in the UK, with at least one small or medium-sized company in the projectsource |
| Rounds | Quarterly competitions, each with a fixed pot Recent rounds have put £15 million to £25 million on the table across all sectors, so games and software compete with everything else.source |
Watch out. Smart is heavily oversubscribed and the assessment is on novelty, not on how much you need the money. A game that is commercially ambitious but technically conventional tends to score badly.
UK Games Fund
Sector grantRun by UK Games Talent and Finance CIC, funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
The only national fund aimed squarely at game development, running since 2015 across prototype, starter and content stages.
| Content Fund | £100,000 to £250,000 grants for commercial entertainment gamessource |
|---|---|
| Other tracks | A Prototype Fund for early builds and a Starter Fund for new teamssource |
| Track record | More than 400 projects funded and around £20 million placed into indie games programmes, from more than 1,500 applicationssource |
Watch out. Rounds open and close on their own schedule and expressions of interest come before the full application, so the fund is worth watching months before you need the money.
03Which credits can you claim through your tax return?
These are not competitive. If the spend qualifies and the paperwork holds up, the money is yours.
Video Games Expenditure Credit
Tax creditRun by HM Revenue and Customs
The successor to Video Games Tax Relief, and the largest single number available to a UK game developer.
| Headline rate | 34% of qualifying expendituresource |
|---|---|
| What qualifies | Up to 80% of the game's core costs, meaning what you spend designing, producing and testing itsource |
| UK spend condition | At least 10% of core costs must relate to activity in the UKsource |
| How it is paid | The credit is taxable at the main rate of corporation tax, then set against your tax bill, and anything left over is paid to you Because the credit is taxed before it reaches you, the cash effect is closer to a quarter of qualifying spend than to the 34% headline.source |
| Excluded games | Games made for advertising, promotion or gambling cannot claimsource |
Watch out. The credit only reaches development costs. Money you spend getting players, which for most studios is the larger number, sits outside it entirely.
Merged R&D expenditure credit
Tax creditRun by HM Revenue and Customs
The single R&D scheme that replaced the separate SME and RDEC routes for accounting periods starting on or after 1 April 2024.
| Rate | A taxable expenditure credit of 20% of qualifying R&D spendsource |
|---|---|
| Applies from | Accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024source |
| R&D intensive route | A loss-making SME whose R&D is at least 30% of total spend can claim £27 for every £100 of R&D investmentsource |
Watch out. HMRC now checks software R&D claims closely, and routine development work does not qualify. Budget for the evidence, not just for the claim.
04What will none of them pay for?
All four schemes pay for work done on the product itself. None of them covers what you spend getting people to play it or buy it.
What the four routes pay for
- Building the game or the product
- Technical research that carries real uncertainty
- Prototypes and early builds
- Salaries of the people doing that work
What none of them touch
- Paid ads and everything else that finds players
- App store and platform commissions
- Hosting and servers once you are live
- Trade shows, localisation and getting into new markets
The UK is on the Turkish Ministry of Trade's target country list, which matters if you sell to UK players: activity aimed at a target country is supported at the higher rate. If the commercial side of the business runs through a Turkish company, that spend comes back at 50% to 70%, paid in cash against invoices you have already settled.
| What you spend it on | Programme item | Paid back | Annual cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ads and player acquisition | Digital product promotion: ads & marketing (up to 10 products/yr) | 50% to 70% | 50 000 000 ₺ ≈ $1,043,841 |
| App store and platform commissions | App store & platform commissions (up to 10 products/yr) | 50% | 20 000 000 ₺ ≈ $417,537 |
| Hosting and servers | Hosting costs | 50% | 5 000 000 ₺ ≈ $104,384 |
Caps are revalued upward every year, so these figures grow with inflation rather than erode. Rates and caps come from the same file as our calculator, so the two can never disagree.
What Türkiye would pay back on your spending
Türkiye runs a government programme that refunds part of what a software company or game studio spends on reaching customers abroad. It covers advertising, app store and platform commissions, and hosting. The refund is paid in cash against invoices the company has already settled, so it does not depend on the company making a profit. The standard rate is 50%, and it rises to 70% when the customers being targeted are in one of the twenty countries on the Turkish Ministry of Trade's target list.
Put your own yearly figures in below. The rates and the annual caps come from the same file as our full calculator, and the total updates as you type.
05Questions we get asked
Can we claim in Türkiye without leaving the UK?
Yes, and that is how most of the studios we work with do it. The UK company stays where it is. A Turkish company is set up to run the activity being claimed for, it holds those contracts and pays those invoices, and the claims follow. Nobody has to relocate. The Turkish company does need real people doing real work.
Can a UK studio claim both the Video Games Expenditure Credit and R&D relief?
Not on the same expenditure. The same cost cannot sit in two schemes, so studios doing genuine technical research usually split the project, with the game build claimed under the games credit and the research strand claimed under the R&D scheme.
Do UK grants cover user acquisition and marketing?
Almost never. Innovate UK funds research and development work, the UK Games Fund funds making the game, and both tax credits reach development costs only. Marketing and player acquisition are treated as commercial costs you carry yourself.
How long does UK grant money take to arrive?
Plan on months. A quarterly Innovate UK round runs several weeks to the deadline, then assessment, then contracting. The tax credits arrive with your corporation tax return, so up to a year after the spend depending on where it falls in your accounting period.
Why we track other countries' schemes
CyberScope Solutions is an Istanbul consultancy that manages Türkiye's IT export incentive claims for software companies and game studios. Founders ask us what they would be giving up by moving activity here, so we read the schemes they already use. That is why this page exists and why the figures on it are dated.
- Every figure is sourced. Each number links to the page it came from and carries the date we last checked it.
- We do the filing. Claims run through DYS, the ministry's own system, and we handle the evidence pack, the deadlines and the follow-up questions.
- You find out early if it is not for you. The first call is thirty minutes and we will say plainly if your spend pattern does not suit the programme.
Turn that number into money
Send us the rough shape of your spend. You get back what it is worth, what setting it up involves, and how fast the first claim can go in. Companies already operating here treat this as routine, and the six month window means the clock is running on invoices you have already paid.
- A reply from a person within one working day
- No mailing list, no drip sequence
- Thirty minutes, and you keep the numbers either way
Got it.
We will read it properly and reply within a working day. If you would rather get it over with now, pick a time that suits you.
Book a 30 minute call06Where these numbers come from
- https://www.ukri.org/councils/innovate-uk/guidance-for-applicants/guidance-for-specific-funds/smart-innovation-funding-guidance/ checked 2026-08-20
- https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/search checked 2026-08-20
- https://www.ukgamesfund.com/ checked 2026-08-20
- https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claiming-video-games-expenditure-credits-for-corporation-tax checked 2026-08-20
- https://www.gov.uk/guidance/research-and-development-rd-tax-relief-the-merged-scheme-and-enhanced-rd-intensive-support checked 2026-08-20
- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-development-rd-tax-relief-reforms/enhanced-support-for-research-development-rd-intensive-small-or-medium-enterprises-smes checked 2026-08-20