The Investment Activator Programme supports investment activity across the region, we have pulled together some useful statistics and information to help you understand all the great things that are happening here. Scroll down to explore the companies making waves in the region and the sectors that are leading the way.
For a downloadable version you can check out our 2022 Annual Report on SW Equity Investment.
2022 saw companies in the South West region raise just over £920 million in equity investment. This is £265 million down on 2021 which is most likely a reflection of the wider macroeconomic climate, and the downward trend which is happening across the world. In total, 318 companies participated in 355 fundraising events last year, somewhat down on the 392 companies and 451 fundraising events in 2021. Many have tried to characterise the sectors and themes that are most successful in raising equity funding in the region but the list is long and varied. It’s unsurprising that the Beauhurst data highlights Technology/IP-based businesses as being most successful this year given the nature of venture funding. But when pushed, one would probably select FinTech, DeepTech, Cyber, HealthTech and Creative as hot sectors to watch, based partly on the success of companies here, and partly on the targeted efforts of the support ecosystem.
Deeptech draws on the region’s historic strengths in aerospace engineering, chip design and data management.
AI: Very notably, Graphcore has raised £544m in equity investment for their AI infrastructure tools, to scale their processor optimised for machine-learning task.
Quantum: The University of Bristol is a centre of excellence in Quantum. Since 2016, 31 new companies have been created and over £60 million has been dedicated to developing the industry in the region.
Robotics : Bristol Robotics lab is one of the largest robotics research hubs in Europe. Robotics startups include the incredibly impressive Open Bionics, Reach Industries and Perceptual Robotics amongst others.
Biotech: University of Bristol spinout Ziylo was acquired for around £630m, and its founder Harry Destecroix has since set up the Science Creates VC fund as well as 2 Bristol-based DeepTech incubators.
The region is the home of GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre and the Cyber Security Operations Centre in Corsham protecting the Ministry of Defence’s cyberspace. Many startups and communities have sprung up over the past few years including Immersive Labs which has attracted £151m of equity investment, and of course the £1bn Golden Valley Development in Cheltenham will only attract more to the area.
The region is home to tech centres for large corporates such as Lloyds, Nationwide and Hargreaves Lansdown and several crowdfunding platforms including the equity platform Crowdcube.
Local scale up Brightpearl was recently acquired by Sage in a £225m deal and recently the South West has seen a plethora of fintech startups emerge. Clearbank and Moneyhub had two of the largest raises in 2022 with £175m and £55m respectively.
With bases from Aardman Animations, the BBC, Netflix, IMDb and Channel 4, the region has attracted some serious players.
The region is home to the £40m+ MyWorld creative research hub looking at the future of content with a focus on immersive tech. Creative companies emerging from the region include Ultraleap, Virti and Condense Reality.
HealthTech is an industry that has grown in the region driven by cross-over expertise in hardware, robotics and creative industries. Businesses such as Robotic Prosthetics firm OpenBionics have been joined by businesses including OKKO Health, Emm and Ferryx who all raised investment in 2022. Healthtech businesses have been particularly supported by dedicated centres, including Science Creates two Bristol sites and FutureSpace at UWE Bristol.
The top five largest investments in 2022 were dominated by two fibre broadband deals but the list was topped by ClearBank, headquartered in Bristol which raised £175 million. The remainder of the top five was made up of Truespeed (£100 million) based in Bath, ImmersiveLabs (£59.5 million), Moneyhub (£55 million) and Spectrum Medical (£43.9 million) in Cheltenham.
A testament to the strength of the region, 2021 saw a huge rebound from the disruption of COVID-19, with record investment of £1.14 billion going to well over 300 companies. Key investments included Vertical Aerospace (£214 million), Netomnia (£162 million), Ultraleap (£60 million) and Huboo (£60 million).
Despite the impact of COVID-19 last year was a strong year for investment with significant amounts raised by Graphcore ($222M) & Brightpearl (£33m) amongst others. New funds landed in the form of the £15m Science Creates EIS Fund focussed on deeptech startups and £10m coinvestment fund from Newable to sit alongside Bristol Private Equity Club’s angel investments.
2019 was a big year for the West of England investment scene with two of its better known businesses (Grapchore & Ovo Energy) becoming the first ‘Unicorns’ in the area. Additionally Ultra Haptics acquired with West Coast startup Leap Motion to form Ultraleap and over 100 other businesses raised investment.
2018 saw over 141 companies raise money in the West of England. This included a significant number raising between £2-5m including MoveGB, MoneyHub, TravelLocal, Micrima and Boxarr. Notably biotech start up Ziylo was also acquired by Danis Pharmaceutical Company Novo Nordisk in a deal of $800m.
139 companies raised equity funding in 2017 with several deeptech and hardware businesses raising significant amounts. BluWireless raised £17.9m for their 5G mmWave wireless technology, Graphcore raised $80m towards the development of their Machine Learning processors and Xmos raised $15.4m for their development of audio and voice processors.
We’ve looked back over the last 5 years of investments in the region and we’ve pulled out the companies that have raised the most money during this time.
There are a number of other brilliant businesses that have raised over the past year or so, we’ve highlighted some of them here.
Sign up to receive the Investment Activator Programme newsletter. Our updates are sent up to 10x per year and include information on our investor events and local companies that are raising funding.