Welcome to my weekly South West Tech News roundup, where you can get all the headlines from the past week in one place.
What has our busy tech and digital community been up to this week? From award wins and innovative breakthroughs to unmissable events and capital raised, take a moment to reflect on the hive of daily activity taking place in our region.
If you have a story to share, wizz it over to beno@techspark.co – I look forward to hearing from you!
Chimnie & Propflo partner to give advanced energy efficiency reports to homeowners
Two market leading and award winning UK proptechs – Chimnie and Propflo – have partnered to accelerate green home improvements. Chimnie will offer homeowners access to a one stop-shop for improvements (GreenVal) whilst Propflo will also utilise Chimnie’s automated valuation model (AVM) to further enhance GreenVal and offer it to its business customers, such as lenders, brokers and estate agents, in the PortfolioAudit tool.
With the government pressing ahead with new minimum energy efficiency standards for the private and social rented sectors, and energy bills rising by 10% this month, it is a key priority for the country. However, £250bn investment is required to bring UK properties up to standard and 80,000 homes needing to be retrofitted per month, so greater awareness and access to information is needed.
SETsquared Partnership universities and QantX announce new £300m investment vehicle to drive innovation and growth
The SETsquared Partnership universities and leading regional investment firm QantX have announced plans for a new £300m spin-out focused investment vehicle to catalyse the creation and growth of science and technology companies addressing global challenges.
The initiative was announced by Sir Richard Olver, Chair of QantX, at Bristol City Hall on 11 October at techSPARK’s Regional Investment and Health & Life Sciences Summit, as part of Bristol Technology Festival.
This new investment vehicle will drive a much needed step change in early-stage patient capital, expertise, and support available to University spin-outs and start-up companies in the region that are working in areas of true global impact – such as sustainability, clean energy, and transformative healthcare.
Siloton secures £860k new funding as first product launch approaches
Silicon Gorge 2024 winner, Siloton, has secured £860,000 to progress the commercial roll-out of its groundbreaking eye imaging chip technology, which could help address the UK’s most common cause of sight loss.
The funding package will help Siloton to further develop its Akepa optical coherence tomography (OCT) chip technology and bring a version of the device for researchers to market in 2025. Later this year, the company is aiming to deliver a world first by capturing the first chip-based OCT image of a living eye in a commercial setting – a key milestone for its future use by clinicians.
Evenlode Foundation committed further capital in the latest round alongside members of the South East Angels, the Francis Crick Institute, and other experienced angel investors. They were complemented by non-dilutive funding from an Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst grant, taking total funding in the company to date to £1.7 million.
Bristol Innovations welcomes Rosie Bennett as new Innovation Lead
SETsquared Bristol have announced that Rosie Bennett joins the Bristol Innovations team as Innovation Lead.
Rosie Bennett’s brief is across Bristol Innovations’ portfolio of incubators, innovation hubs and networks; SETsquared Bristol, Engine Shed, the Quantum Technologies Innovation Centre, Quantum Frontier, and the University of Bristol’s joint venture with Science Creates.Â
As Innovation Lead, Rosie will advise Bristol Innovations on growing its programmes for business members. This includes supporting founders and their teams to tap into the right resources at the University and within government and industry, from raising investment to collaborative research & development. Â
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