These are the three main support activities that we run. Read on to find out which opportunity fits your needs.
< IAP Activities in the South West >
How can we help you raise investment?
PitchMe!
PitchMe! allows startup founders the chance to pitch their businesses/ ideas to a panel of experienced ‘pitch listeners’ in front of a small audience. After your 10 minute pitch, you will receive feedback, advice and questions to help you to hone both your ideas and your pitches!
Each session we have 3-4 founders pitching for up to 10 minutes each, followed by insight and advice from our panel of pitch listeners, which in the past have included a combination of, amongst others: the brilliant Richard Godfrey, of Rocketmakers fame, Pete Lockett, Head of Seed at Bristol Private Equity Club, Sam Simpson, CEO at Founder Catalyst, Nina Searle, Partner at TLT, Richard Spilsbury, from Linkstone Advisory, pitch expert Martin Barnes from Mountains of Imagination or Messaging Architect, Alara Vural.
Events are generally held online over a Wednesday lunchtime, and dates for the second half of 2023 are as follows : 27th September, 25th October and 29th November.
If you’d like to take part in a future PitchMe! event, you can register your interest via this form.
These events are open to the public, do keep an eye on the techSPARK socials if you’d like to attend as audience.
Silicon Gorge
The Silicon Gorge pitch competition happens annually and provides an opportunity to pitch to a room full of investors. This is a competitive process, we usually receive c. 70 applications and approximately 25 will be selected for the semi-finals and 12 selected for the final pitch event.
Who attends Silicon Gorge?
The audience at Silicon Gorge consists of a mixture of VCs, Angels and Network leaders. At each event we have a small panel to help bring out any extra details from the pitchers, and previous panellists include Jean de Fougerolles, Managing Partner at Ascension Ventures, Charles Grimsdale, Angel and Founder at Eden Ventures, Lisa Matthews, Portfolio Manager at Jenson Funding Partners, Simon Murdoch, Managing Partner at Episode 1, and Triin Linamagi, Co-Founder at Sie Ventures.
Alumni of Silicon Gorge include Immersive Labs and Martin Bysh from Huboo, who have raised £68m and £60m in 2021 alone, plus many others who have raised millions since they pitched: Lettus Grow, KETS Quantum Security, Yellowdog, TravelLocal, Virti, Neighbourly, Condense Reality, Intelligent AI to name just a few.
How to apply
Applications are now closed for the 2023 edition of Silicon Gorge but will be open for the 2024 edition in January.
Companies applying must have a base anywhere in the South West from Cornwall, South Wales up to Cheltenham and across to Portsmouth and be looking for equity investment of between £100k & £2m.
As part of Silicon Gorge, successful applicants will be able to take part in a free pitching workshop, as well as PR & marketing via the extensive TechSPARK platform and network.
To be alerted to applications opening contact abby@techspark.co or simply sign up to our newsletter here.
Quarterly Investment Briefing
The Quarterly Investment Briefing (QIB) is organised by TechSPARK as part of the Investment Activator Programme (IAP). This quarterly mailer goes out to investors and those who enable investment directly (incubator managers, lawyers, accountants etc).
As well as investment updates of what’s been happening in the region, we also send out the decks of those companies that are currently raising. If you are a founder who is raising investment, you are invited to submit a one-page summary of your proposition (and optional pitch deck). We will share this with our community of 500+ investors through our password-protected site.
To include your proposition in the next mailer please submit one-sided, one-page summaries by the last day of each calendar quarter (31st Dec/ 31st March etc)- by completing this short form.
If you have any queries about the Quarterly Investment Briefing mailers and updates, please contact briony@techspark.co
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The Investment Activator Programme (IAP) supports companies and investors to increase the flow of equity investment in the South West.