---
title: "Digital Catapult empowers UK startups to advance defense"
url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/digital-catapult-empowers-uk-startups-to-advance-defense/
date: 2025-12-14
modified: 2025-12-14
lang: en
author: "Edward Wakefield"
description: "Digital Catapult has selected five startups to join its accelerator program aimed at strengthening industrial supply chain resilience in the UK defense sector and accelerating the practical adoption of deep..."
categories:
  - "Defense"
  - "Startup and Incubators"
tags:
  - "insights"
image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/shutterstock_2498849189-scaled-2000x0-c-default-640x360.jpg
word_count: 447
---

# Digital Catapult empowers UK startups to advance defense

Digital Catapult has selected five startups to join its accelerator program aimed at strengthening industrial supply chain resilience in the UK defense sector and accelerating the practical adoption of deep tech innovation. The Digital Supply Chain Hub Defence Testbed Accelerator focuses on addressing secure data-sharing challenges to enable faster, more agile additive manufacturing across defence supply chains, while helping participating companies scale.

Delivered by Digital Catapult through the Made Smarter | Digital Supply Chain Hub, the program brings together the [Ministry of Defence (MOD)](https://www.voxelmatters.com/babcock-awarded-uk-mod-contract-to-3d-print-military-equipment/), major defence manufacturers, and UK-based technology SMEs. With support from the National Composites Centre (NCC) and the [Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC)](https://www.voxelmatters.directory/company/manufacturing-technology-centre/), the accelerator convenes cross-sector capabilities to unlock new approaches for securely managing and sharing manufacturing design data across defence ecosystems.

The initiative responds to persistent challenges facing the UK defense sector, including long lead times for critical assets and fragmented data systems that limit equipment availability and disrupt supply chains. To address this, the MOD is exploring innovative ways to create a federated digital inventory of manufacturing information, giving authorised partners a single, secure view of essential technical data and enabling distributed [3D printing of defense components](https://www.voxelmatters.com/amuk-fundamental-knowledge-gap-blocks-110m-in-defense-manufacturing-savings/).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wBd3EMtd50

The five startups will work across two technical challenges designed to validate deep tech solutions for secure, connected, and responsive defense manufacturing. Dataline Labs, CamyPro, and TECHNIA will address the Technical Data Packs (TDP)-Digital Inventory Connectors challenge, developing software to securely extract and standardise metadata from Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems. Vistory Group and Quaisr will focus on the Federated Digital Inventory challenge, exploring how to build a unified, permissioned platform for viewing and sharing technical data across the supply chain.

These challenges build on Digital Catapult’s established track record in supply chain innovation, which includes 37 Digital Supply Chain Hub projects, 135 engagements with manufacturing and technology SMEs, and a 44% year-on-year increase in participation. Companies involved in the Hub have secured over £6 million in funding, underscoring the programme’s impact in supporting commercialisation and scale.

"One area of defence innovation that requires immediate attention is the supply chain, responsible for the delivery of assets, information, and people that underpin the success of the UK defence sector," said Annie Iakovaki, Head of Industrial Supply Chains at Digital Catapult. She added that programs like this demonstrate the value of bridging industry, startups, and government to tackle critical challenges.

"This is an exciting moment in the evolution of the ideas stated in the MOD’s recently issued Advanced Manufacturing Strategy," said Richard Hamber, Advanced Manufacturing Lead in Defence Support at the National Armaments Director Group. He highlighted the testbed’s role in translating strategy into practice and expanding SME participation in line with the Defence Industrial Strategy.