Bristol was this week chosen by US tech giant Oracle as the second location for its pioneering global start-up accelerator programme to encourage the next generation of tech entrepreneurs.
Oracle, which has a cloud development centre in the city, is to tap into Bristol’s world-class tech innovation by teaming up with the successful University of Bristol-backed SETsquared incubator and its Engine Shed innovation hub. 
Oracle chiefs said they were attracted by the city’s established tech ‘ecosystem’, world-beating cluster of innovative small tech businesses, its forward-looking universities and its bedrock of global players such as IBM, HP, Amazon and Cray.
Invest in Bristol & Bath (IBB), the region’s inward investment organisation, described the move as hugely significant and said it demonstrated Bristol’s position as a global centre for tech innovation in fast-growth areas such as cloud computing.
Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees, speaking at the launch, said firms such as Oracle were playing a part not only in making Bristol a successful entrepreneurial city but were ensuring it stayed as an open, international-focussed city at a time when countries were turning inwards and becoming more protectionist.
Oracle launched a pilot start-up accelerator centre in the Indian tech capital of Bangalore in April last year. Its success – 80% of the firms have received funding – prompted it to plan seven more across the globe, with Bristol the first of these to be launched.
The search has now started to find five start-ups to form the first Bristol cohort. Oracle bosses said they had an open mind on the type of tech involved or any previous business experience of the would-be entrepreneurs.
Run by members of the Oracle’s research and development team in Bristol alongside specially recruited staff, the program will provide six months of mentoring from technical and business experts, state-of-the-art technology, a co-working space at Engine Shed, access to Oracle customers, partners and investors, and free Oracle Cloud credits.
It also offers an ever-expanding global network of start-up peers.
Oracle UK and Ireland senior vice president Dermot O’Kelly told the launch at Engine Shed: “Bristol has one of the most vibrant and exciting start-up ecosystems around today.
“We will be working as part of this buoyant community to support local start-ups and nurture new waves of development and talent here in the UK, and ensure we continue to build upon the heritage we have in leading global innovation.”
Leading the programme is Oracle senior vice president of product development Reggie Bradford, a serial entrepreneur himself who has built up and sold three businesses.
He said: “The next five to ten years promise innovations and growth that will drive new business ideas enabled by the cloud.
“Oracle understands that start-ups are at the heart of innovation, and through this program we aim to give start-ups access to extensive resources and support when they need it most.”
Among the Bristol businesses hoping to join the project is Vorb, which creates live, interactive orbs by collecting and sharing videos, pictured - so enabling users to join in live events or share content. The business, based at Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio, is the brainchild of serial entrepreneur and creative technologist Tim Kindberg. 
Tim has been working with Oracle for several months using its cloud technology to build the business.
IBB head of inward investment Matthew Cross said: “I don’t think you can underestimate the importance of this. We have worked closely with Oracle, one of the most respected companies in the sector, while they have gone from being a fairly quiet investor in Bristol into a major player who are helping us develop as a world-leading centre for technology.”
The start-up accelerator centre would play a key role in further developing Bristol’s capabilities in leading-edge tech – which he said were better than any other UK city as they spanned vital and fast-growing areas such as advanced computing and big data, virtual reality and gaming, digital platforms and microelectronics.
These in turn strengthened other key sectors such as financial services and aerospace as they provide the platforms for future innovation.
Future Oracle cloud-enabled innovation centres are to open in Delhi, Mumbai, Paris, Sao Paulo, Singapore and Tel Aviv.
The Bristol Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator will be open to early-stage technology and technology-enabled start-ups that use the Cloud.
Applications will open later in 2017. Interested start-ups can sign up to receive more information at www.oracle.com/startup.
