Excellent analysis on UK procurement challenges. The findings also resonate strongly with what we see in developing economies, but where there’s an additional structural barrier: payment delays. Even when contracts are donor-funded, startups often wait months for payment despite delivering on schedule.
This creates a cruel irony: ‘startup engagement’ initiatives designed to boost digital ecosystems often damage them instead. The cash flow disruption can be existential for young companies operating on tight runway cycles.
In lower-capacity contexts, the challenge becomes three-dimensional: fixing procurement tempo, timeline, AND payment reliability. Without addressing all three, even well-reformed processes remain high-risk gambles rather than viable growth paths for startups.