Last month’s Silicon Gorge Investor Showcase saw the culmination of a 3 month process to select the top tech & creative companies from the South West UK & South Wales looking for early stage investment of up to £2m. We gathered a fabulous group of investors and enablers at the beautiful PWC offices in central Bristol to watch their pitches. Thanks to our Silicon Gorge Investor Showcase sponsor Cintra Global, and our brilliant IAP Partners for allowing us to put on this year’s event.
On the day we kicked off with an update from our very own Ben Shorrock covering the key stats on Investment into the South West – and reflecting on some of the investment headlines so far in 2023, with £208m so far raised in the South West region this year, somewhat down on last year which is understandable given the current climate, and which we can see reflected in the stats across the country.
We then dived into the 13 pitches, hosted by SETsquared’s Director Kim Brook, and with a questioning panel including Amy Newton of Inclusive Angels, David Wall from Cintra Global, James Cox from PWC, Nina Searle from TLT, and Dr Henry Crosby from Martello & NSet Ventures.
As Henry noted, “I was blown away by all the amazing pitches, companies and entrepreneurs that presented at Silicon Gorge. The South West is full of exceptional talent, and Silicon Gorge provides a great platform for them to be heard”.
Worth noting that for the first time in Silicon Gorge history we had more female founders pitching than male, with 7 women taking the stage to pitch, a fabulous statistic that we hope reflects the increasing diversity of the tech startup landscape and the work that many of us are doing to accelerate this. You can check out all the winners here, however if you are an investor and would like to see their individual decks – please email iap@techspark.co and we can share these as well.
Silicon Gorge Investor Showcase will be open again for applications in November for a February edition next year. Watch this space.
Credit @JonCraig_Photos
