South West investment overview

The term DeepTech covers any technology not focussed on end-user services, including AI, Quantum Technologies, Robotics and Biotech. Over the past few years, we’ve seen strengths within the South West across all these areas. 

AI: Very notably, Graphcore has raised £162m in equity investment in January 2021 for their AI infrastructure tools, to top up the £116m they received in 2020. 

Quantum: The University of Bristol is a centre of excellence in Quantum Technologies. Since 2016, 31 new companies have been created and over £60 million has been dedicated to developing the industry in the region. 

Biotech: In 2018 University of Bristol spinout Ziylo was acquired for around £630m, and it’s founder Harry Destecroix has since set up the Science Creates VC fund. 

Robotics: The Bristol Robotics Lab at UWE has seen several extremely successful spinouts including Open Bionics which has raised £4.8m to date.

There are several incubators and accelerators in the region with a focus on DeepTech, including Unit DX & DY, Future Space, SETsquared Bristol, the Bristol Robotics Lab, and the National Composites Centre so plenty of support for those startups to grow.

Cyber Security is a sector that has flourished across the UK in 2020 due to the increased amount of remote working and changes in working practises. However, even prior to 2020 Cyber was a focus of the region.

Cheltenham is the home of GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre, attracting specialist talent to the region. A Cyber Security Operations Centre was set up in 2016 in Corsham to protect the Ministry of Defence’s cyberspace, and various startups and communities have sprung up over the past few years including Immersive Labs which attracted £38m of equity investment in its 2nd year of trading in 2019, and Bristol & Bath Cyber which has been set up to bring together people of various backgrounds into Cyber.

Fintech has long been established as a strength for the South West as the location of the tech centres for large corporates such as Lloyds and Hargreaves Lansdown, plus several crowdfunding platforms are based within the region, including the equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.

Home to the investment success story Brightpearl which has raised £62m to date, recently the South West has seen a plethora of fintech startups emerge. Companies to watch in 2021 include Loqbox, Tumelo, Lumio, itSettled and Roqqet, who are at the early stages of their investment journeys.

As home to Aardman Animations, the BBC Natural History Unit and Channel 4, the region has attracted some serious players, however, there is also much support available for early-stage creative companies in the West of England.

The Bristol VR Lab, the Pervasive Media Studio, and the Centre for the Analysis of Motion, Entertainment Research and Applications all attract an international influx of early-stage companies.

Of the creative startups emerging from the region, Condense Reality, Motion Impossible and Stornaway are 2020 standouts.