SETsquared
SETsquared is the enterprise partnership of the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton, and Surrey.
We provide a range of specialist business, investment, and innovation support programmes and, since 2002, have supported over 6,000 companies to raise £3.9bn investment.
Our programmes are designed to support ventures across their lifecycle from idea to start-up and spin-out to scale-up and growth. They are tailored to high-tech, high-growth ventures focusing on AI & advanced computing, quantum tech, health tech, advanced materials, environmental tech, and robotics.
SETsquared provides significant additional services to investee SMEs through our range of programmes tailored to the different stages of company development. Our programmes provide a comprehensive suite of support to high-tech companies, including business reviews, incubation, mentoring, access to professional services, support in accessing public R&D funding, investor readiness training and access to specialist networks. Further, we provide access to the extensive expertise, knowledge and facilities of our six research-intensive universities with over 100,000 students and delivering upwards of £600m pa of Government funded research across all Innovate UK Future Economy themes and technology families plus access to graduates, interns, placements and collaborative R&D projects.
We partner with many leading angel groups which invest across all sectors. Examples include Angels Invest Wales, the designated angel investment body for Wales, building and facilitating new angel syndicates, plus an £8m co-investment fund through the Development Bank of Wales; Bristol Private Equity Club, a growing angel syndicate spanning the Bristol area, with a strong track record in backing innovative high-tech businesses; Science Angels Syndicate with \>50 members supporting businesses across the UK with a focus on S/EIS eligible businesses with ambitions to impact society on a large-scale in sectors including Life Sciences, Advanced Materials, MedTech and Digital Health.
The overall deal capacity of our angel groups and their 1000 members in 2021/22 was 50 deals ranging in value from £50k – £1.5M. Our partner syndicates represent a particularly strong grouping with equity investment capacity estimated at £15m pa with additional co-investment opportunities alongside their deals. Through SETsquared’s Regional Angel Investment Accelerator, 19 companies were supported to win £3.3m in funding leveraging \>£8.6m in investment.