On Thursday, 4 September, techSPARK hosted the latest Quarterly Investment Briefing at S&W in the lovely EQ Building in Bristol. These events are an opportunity for investors and enablers of investment to connect, learn about the latest investment news in the region, and explore how we can help increase the flow of capital into the region for fast-growth companies.
Today was jam-packed with updates worthy of a quick blog, so here it is:
We compared investment trends from Q2 2024 against this year. Thanks to data from Beauhurst, we also discovered that the South West is bucking the national trend (down 34%) and seeing a 75% increase in investment fun H1. We heard that Crowdcube once again tops the most prolific investors with 5 deals, hotly pursued by Angel Investors Bristol and South West Investment Fund.
We celebrated the companies that have raised the most funding in the last quarter – a ground source heat pump company, a website development company, a financial advice network from Swindon (possibly the first unicorn in Swindon if rumours of their valuation are true), and an internet company started by a man who wanted faster broadband in his Dorset village (which received £50m from the National Wealth Fund).