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What does R&D really cost UK fintech?
Proprietary insights from 35 UK fintech companies and 58 audited R&D tax relief claims — showing what companies at every stage actually spend, and where they're leaving money unclaimed.
The typical fintech claim
is payroll-led — but 38%
sits elsewhere.
Across the full dataset, employee costs account for 62% of qualifying spend. But more than a third of the total — £19m — sits in categories that many companies overlook entirely.
Dataset Totals
Key Insight
The median claim includes zero subcontracted R&D — yet subcontracting accounts for £5.09m across the dataset. Just two claims account for 83% of all subcontracted spend. This isn't typical behaviour, but where it appears, it appears at significant scale.
R&D expenditure scales
sharply with stage.
Venture, Growth, and Established companies don't just spend different amounts on R&D — they spend it in fundamentally different ways. The cost mix shifts as companies mature.
The Growth Stage Gap
Growth-stage companies have the lowest non-payroll diversity in the dataset — just 11.6% outside employee costs, compared to 50.2% at Venture stage and 43.1% at Established. Companies scaling fast may be tightening their claims rather than expanding them — leaving material spend uncaptured.
Claim size scales predictably
with headcount.
R&D expenditure increases consistently as companies grow. Use this table to benchmark your company against peers of a similar size — and see what your spend could generate under the current merged scheme.
| Employee Band | Median R&D Expenditure | Relative Scale | Est. Tax Credit Range |
|---|
How to read this
Tax credit estimates apply the merged scheme rate of 15–16.2% for standard claims. Loss-making companies spending 30%+ of total expenditure on R&D may qualify for the R&D-intensive SME scheme at up to 27% — materially increasing the return.
Where do you sit
against your peers?
Select your company's stage and headcount to see how your R&D expenditure compares to the dataset — and what you could expect to recover.