techSPARK’s Quarterly Investment Briefing returned on 23rd April in Bristol, bringing together investors, founders, enablers and ecosystem builders for a data-rich look at Q1 2026 – and a fresh format that put the room itself centre stage.
A full room for the Q1 2026 Quarterly Investment Briefing
£133 million raised – but the deal profile is shifting
The headline figure for Q1 2026 is £133 million raised across 86 fundraisings in the Bristol & Bath area – up from £118 million across 106 fundraisings in the same quarter last year. The rise in total capital comes alongside a meaningful shift in deal profile: four companies raised over £10 million this quarter, compared to just one in Q1 2025. However, the volume of deals under £1 million remains dominant, with 75 companies falling into that bracket.
Q1 2025 vs Q1 2026: total raised, number of fundraisings, and deal size breakdown
Aerospace, marine tech and fusion lead the top five
The top five fundraises reflect a notably diverse range of sectors. Vertical Aerospace led with £38 million for its electric aviation technology, followed by Scotch Corner Designer Village (£25.5 million), SRT Marine System Solutions in Radstock (£16 million), Astral Systems (£10.2 million) for fusion reactor research, and Uplift360 (£6.4 million) for sustainable defence and security practices.
Top 5 fundraises from Q1 2026
Application software (29.2%) and manufacturing (21.4%) were the leading sectors by number of companies funded. By stage, seed and venture companies accounted for the vast majority of activity. On the funder side, Crowdcube led by number of fundraisings, with Angel Investors Bristol placing strongly – having announced six investments totalling £500,000 in Q1, making them one of the most active angel groups nationally.
Q1 2026 sector and stage breakdown
The room felt busier – even if the data said otherwise
Bryony presenting the agenda and gathering live insights via Mentimeter
In a first for the QIB format, host Briony led the group through a live Mentimeter session to capture real-time sentiment. Attendees reported feeling more active than 12 months ago, despite the data showing a lower volume of deals – a tension that prompted genuine discussion in the room. The average deal duration came out at around nine months, with broad agreement that founders have been stretching their runway as far as possible before raising.
On barriers to deploying capital, responses coalesced around external factors – economic uncertainty and investor confidence – rather than weaknesses within the local ecosystem itself.
Headlines: Sovereign AI, Diversity X Ventures and a South West investment push
Headline news from the Q1 2026 briefing
Three broader ecosystem stories framed the opening. The government’s Sovereign AI Fund – a £500 million equity investment – came with a set of wider perks beyond direct funding, including GPU access on national supercomputers, fast-track visa decisions for AI talent, and R&D grants of up to £10 million. Diversity X Ventures, led locally by Blue O’Connor, also launched as a new angel community focused on underrepresented founders, with 40 members already and a first investment expected this quarter. And a three-month investment drive from Tech SW and Great South West was announced, targeting UKREiiF in Leeds in May and a showcase at London Tech Week in June.
The fishbowl: big questions for the ecosystem
The session’s centrepiece was an experimental fishbowl conversation – four chairs at the front, with only three occupied at any one time, and the audience invited to take the empty seat and join the discussion. Four questions anchored the debate
The four fishbowl questions
- Is Bristol punching its weight when it comes to attracting capital, or are we losing good companies to London and beyond at the growth stage?
- Sovereign AI is attracting attention at policy level – does it translate into real investable opportunity in the South West?
- What more should we do to attract interest from London, European and global VC funds?
- Family offices are an underutilised source of capital in many ecosystems – are we making it easy enough for them to find and back good companies here?
The fishbowl conversation format in action
The conversation surfaced some sharp observations. On London investor engagement, it was noted that while significant inbound activity has taken place – including over 250 investor visits from London to Bristol in the past six to nine months – awareness of this activity within the broader ecosystem remains uneven. The point raised was less about the volume of activity and more about connectivity: events and initiatives are happening, but the information isn’t always reaching the people best placed to act on it.
The full room engaged in the fishbowl discussion
On the growth-stage question, the view from the room was that Bristol & Bath is not dramatically losing companies to London in the way it once might have – partly because many companies now operate across multiple sites and can access capital in both places. The more pressing concern was the graduation rate from seed to growth stage, with a suggestion that the messy middle remains underserved and that without better support, promising companies stagnate rather than scale.
Participants in conversation during the fishbowl session
The family offices thread generated some of the most actionable discussion. Research presented suggested that while significant wealth exists in the wider South West, much of it is managed through London-based family offices – meaning people who live locally are investing through London. The proposal floated was a pre-qualified local family office network that would bring together businesses and investors in a structured, lower-friction setting.
The session closed with a look at the year ahead, including the techSPARK Annual Investment Report, Silicon Gorge Showcase events, ongoing PitchMe! sessions for early-stage founders, and three Quarterly Investment Briefings across the year.
techSPARK’s 2026 Investment Activator activity calendar
A well-attended session in Bristol
The next Quarterly Investment Briefing takes place on 15th July. Sign up at the techSPARK website to stay connected to Bristol & Bath’s investment community.