Two weeks ago today we saw the culmination of a 3 month process to select the top tech & creative companies from the South West looking for early-stage investment of up to £3m. Of course we’re talking about techSPARK’s Silicon Gorge programme.
Earlier this month, we gathered a fabulous group of investors and enablers at the beautiful TLT offices in central Bristol to watch their pitches. Thanks so much to our Silicon Gorge sponsors Mercuri , British Business Bank, Link Stone Advisory, Engine Shed, SETsquared Bristol, and of course TLT.
On the day we kicked off with updates from techSPARK’s very own Abby Frear & Ben Shorrock covering the key stats on Investment into the South West – and reflecting on some of the investment headlines so far in 2024, with £166m so far raised in the South West region this year, tracking on a par with this time last year. We ran through some of the headlines of the last 6 months, followed by lightning introductions to 20 of the larger investors in the room.
“I’m not aware of any other pitch events in the South West with such a high concentration of high calibre investors genuinely active in the South West”
We then headed into the 13 Pitches and with an insightful questioning panel comprising James Pringle, Principal at Mercuri, Ursula Morgan, Founder at the Two-Percent, Nina Searle, Partner at TLT, Max Slinger, Investment Manager at Mercia Ventures. Check out the rundown of this year’s startups here.
Nina tells us, “It was an amazing showcase – fantastic pitches for a huge range of businesses delivered to a room packed with investors. Congratulations to all the winners and to the techSPARK team for pulling it all together; we are delighted to have sponsored the event again this year.”
Max adds, “I’m not aware of any other pitch events in the South West with such a high concentration of high calibre investors genuinely active in the South West, so long may Silicon Gorge help us investors find some good ‘uns!”
As an attendee, Jack Thompson at Ghyston adds, “Fantastic pitches. What stood out for me was at least 3 of them are effectively spinouts of existing South West success stories. Further evidence of the growing ecosystem and success in the region where companies are creating new companies and creating even more success.”
We’ve listed all the winners below, however if you’re an investor and would like to see the decks – please email iap@techspark.co and we can share these as well.
Similarly, if you’d like to get involved in sponsoring the event in future years please do reach out! It’s a fabulous and rewarding process to be a part of.
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