A pioneering programme to help catalyse investment into some of the West of England’s fastest-growing start-ups has been launched by TechSPARK, the region’s tech sector information hub.
The first of its kind in the UK, the Investment Activator Programme (IAP) will include activities to increase the flow of money into the area and showcase the region as a leading start-up hub. 
It will begin as a two-year pilot bringing together eight public and private sector organisations that recognise the impact of working collaboratively to strengthen the region’s ecosystem and jointly deliver activity.
Bristol has enjoyed a dramatic rise in the level of investment into its businesses over the past few years and in 2019 outperformed international centres such as Dublin, Zurich, Amsterdam and Brussels.
However, it is widely accepted that there is still a long way to go before the UK’s regions can compete with more traditional investment hubs like London, where more than $8.2bn was raised last year against $418m locally.
Investment activator Briony Phillips, pictured, a former scale-up enabler at Bristol’s Engine Shed innovation hub, said: “According to the UKBAA (UK Business Angels Association), we have the third largest community of angel investors (early stage) in the UK, behind London and the South East.
“And yet 85% of the angel investment from our region goes into the golden triangle of London, Cambridge and Oxford.” 
As a result, the Bristol-grown ‘unicorns’ – private companies valued at over $1bn (£800m) – Graphcore and Ovo Energy are off their radar, according to Briony, while West of England success stories such Ultrahaptics, Blu Wireless, Immersive Labs and Open Bionics are just a few examples of real big-hitters when it comes to raising investment and making their mark on the global tech scene.
“The Investment Activator programme will add some much-needed capacity to help solve this challenge,” said Briony.
The programme will expand on TechSPARK and Engine Shed’s successful Silicon Gorge pitch competition, which has worked with more than 250 companies pitching for £150m-plus between them, and the Quarterly Investment Briefing (QIB) events, which have brought together more than 300 investors to network, share knowledge and learn about potential investment opportunities.
The IAP has three areas of delivery – events/content and community/data and connections – with the core objectives being:
- To accelerate and catalyse the investment ecosystem
- To make investment support more accessible for founders
- To build the network of investors and founders or leaders locally.
The programme will deliver more than 30 targeted investment events, articles and tools to support founders raising money.
It will offer a relationship management programme to build connections with investors across the UK and showcase the opportunities in the West on a national stage. 
The programme’s specialist partners and their specialist areas include international business transformation firm Delaware, which has an office in Bristol, (enterprise software), Engine Shed (economic development), Bath web innovators Rocketmakers (Venturetech), Bristol recruitment group (talent), the Bristol office of national accountancy firm Smith & Williamson (accounting), Bristol-headquartered national law firm TLT (legal), UWE and the West of England Combined Authority (business support).
Engine Shed head Marty Reid said: “The South West start-up ecosystem has been a great success story over the past few years, with the emergence and growth of exciting businesses across a diverse range of sectors.
“We are proud to support the Investment Activator as a genuinely innovative and collaborative approach to make sure that investors don’t miss out on the incredible opportunities to be found here. I could see this being a model that other regions will look to learn from for years to come.”
Smith & Williamson tax partner Peter Ball added: “This is an excellent initiative that will support high-growth businesses and nurture the local funding ecosystem on which they rely.
“There is no shortage of great businesses in our region but too often they are forced to go to London for funding – Investment Activator will help to reverse this process.”
