Top South West startups set to make waves in 2022

As 2022 is around the corner, we’ve been thinking about what South West startups we expect to be doing big things this year.

Beauhurst has named Bristol as 4th in the Top UK Cities for startups & scaleups. The city alone is home to 495 active, high-growth companies and a centre for several tech sectors, such as cleantech and semiconductors.

We may be biased, but we can see what makes the South West so attractive for investors far and wide. Across the past 10 years, Bristol has seen £1.99b worth of equity funding, across 621 rounds, according to Beauhurst.

2021 has been a record year for the South West as a whole, seeing nearly double the amount of equity investment raised of any year before – that’s nearly £1.2bn in total so far, with Bristol accounting for £494m!

After such an impressive year for the South West, at TechSPARK we wanted to share our predictions for what startups we expect to shake things up in 2022. These rising stars have been grabbing our attention over the past year and we’re super excited to see what’s in store.

Science Creates member, CytoSeek is on a mission to use cell membrane augmentation tech to unlock the potential of next generation advanced therapies. 

CytoSeek spun out of the University of Bristol and in Q4 2019 closed a seed round of just over £1M to apply its technology to the field of immuno-oncology, and more recently the team raised £3.5m, led by Science Creates.

CytoSeek is now engaged in proof of principle studies for multiple product candidates and is seeking to enhance cell therapies against solid tumours.

Dojo is a fintech startup with a mission to empower businesses to thrive in the experience economy. Their aim is to make payments effortless through offering smart POS terminal with little commitment and affordable fees.

The startup is a mobile card machine solution ideal for small businesses while also offering the Dojo app for viewing the progress of payouts and sales in real-time.

Dojo has big ambitions for the future – and the team is looking to grow. You can find out more about the fintech and view their current vacancies here.

This medtech startup is unlocking control for your electronic devices from your earphones by “eAR Control”. Earphones enabled with “The eAR Control” sensor will replace your computer mouse, control your mobile phone, provide a new 3 Dimensional interface for AR and VR headsets and replace health and fitness monitoring, all from usual consumer earphones.

The innovative tech is a patented sensor that detects movements of your ear-drum, providing control, and health and fitness monitoring, all from one sensor embedded in standard earphones and hearing aids. It certainly impressed our Silicon Gorge judges as Earswitch was named one of our Autumn Edition winners.

Most significantly, Earswitch could award the privilege of communication to those with Motor Neurone Disease, are Locked-in after a stroke or have severe cerebral palsy. 

The use expands beyond this into the consumerism market, making the startup multi-faceted and incredibly exciting.

— Nick Gompertz, Founder

Trails started last month for a revolutionary new smartwatch app, EPowar. The wearable monitors heart rate and body motion to sense distress and automatically sends an emergency alert.

The app is aimed primarily at women’s safety, eliminating the major issue with rape alarms and other conventional safety products: they need to be physically activated, which is often not an option in the event of an attack.

The innovative smartwatch app solves this problem, using AI to instantly recognise distress in a user’s activity – responding immediately if a user is attacked when walking or running alone.

— E-J Roodt, Co-founder

Winners of Best Startup at The SPARKies 2021, Lumenate has already begun making waves across the South West tech and digital community.

Lumenate is a startup on a mission to make impactful subconscious exploration more accessible than ever through groundbreaking tech.

The health & wellness tech for good company uses research-driven stroboscopic light sequences from your phone’s torch to guide your brain into a unique and powerful altered state of consciousness between that of deep meditation and classic psychedelics.

With investment from Beckley Waves and Rosamund Pike joining the team, we can see Lumenate going far in 2022.

Seer 365 is revolutionising the Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation model, from system evaluation through to deployment, empowering customers and Microsoft partners alike to achieve greater success.

Using some of the brightest and most experienced minds in the industry, they’re building transformative products that optimise the selection, delivery and adoption of Microsoft Dynamics 365 business applications and associated technologies, helping to significantly reduce cost, mitigate risks and save time.

With an increased awareness of human impact on the environment, businesses have a growing responsibility to mitigate their carbon footprint. 

Spherics is working to help companies, large and small, do just that. The cloud-based platform enables businesses to understand their carbon footprint and make net zero a reality. As featured on the Tech for Good Bristol & Bath dataset, their mission is to illuminate the path to net zero by 2030 for millions of businesses, by providing quick and affordable technologies to support their journey.

Unsurprisingly, the startup has received a lot of traction for its goals, which captures the zeitgeist of the 2020s. Spherics were one of the Silicon Gorge 2021 winners, received the Sustainable Innovation Fund from Innovate UK and won Tech Nation’s Rising Stars 2021 award for The Best in the UK Early-Stage Climate-Tech.

Another Silicon Gorge winner, Reach Industries is making it easier for every developer and company to quickly and securely implement the cloud infrastructure needed to remotely monitor, manage and control their robots, industrial automation and IoT devices.

Co-founders, Silas Adekunle & Chris Beck are back to solve a new issue after closing Reach Robotics in 2019. Seeking to solve the problem of documenting, sharing and validation of operational data in labs is manual, inefficient and laborious, Reach Industries aims to free the hands and minds of scientists to make labs more efficient.

After the success of Reach Robotics, we’re extremely excited to see what the future holds for the team.

This Adtech for good platform embeds charity donation rewards into advertising engagements; so brands can experience more meaningful engagements, higher performance and brand loyalty while donating to causes they care about when their consumers engage with their brand.

The startup has a promising year ahead after announcing £180k investment in pre-seed round in September.

With 90% of consumers reporting they would switch to a brand that supports a good cause; the Views For Change platform enables brands to meet consumer demands from their very first interaction.

Flying cars – the stereotypical icon of the future – are almost a reality.

Launched back in 2016 by OVO Energy founder, Stephen Fitzpatrick, Vertical Aerospace is Revolutionising urban air mobility and electrifying air travel with the VX4

In heavily populated regions, neither cars nor public transport can cope with demand. The VX4 will transform the way people travel. Stephen’s vision was to decarbonise air travel using the best tech from the aviation, energy and automotive industries.

This summer Bristol saw a world first as Vertical Aerospace flew their electric air taxi capable of carrying 250kg.

— Stephen Fitzpatrick, Founder and CEO of Vertical Aerospace

Thanks for taking the time to check out our predictions for ones to watch in 2022! To find out more about any of these businesses, make sure to have a look at our Companies Page where you’ll find a collection of job vacancies, upcoming events, and news articles. 

If you enjoyed this article, you may like our 10 Tech Companies Set to Make Waves in 2021 – featuring big players in the game who will continue to have a huge impact on our tech & digital community throughout 2022.