Investment Activator Programme: November update

It is November, the leaves are falling, and the investment news is flowing. Last month the West of England (that’s Bristol, Bath, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire) saw five companies successfully close equity investment rounds totalling a little over £1.5M; three of those companies have shared the news publicly so here’s a handy roundup.

Condense Reality is a virtual reality startup developing technology to transform how viewers watch live entertainment and sports. They have raised a seed round of more than £800,000, including £220,000 from SFC Capital, the most active seed-stage investor in the UK. Read more.

Create Health, a healthcare marketing and advertising agency received £500k from Creative Growth Finance (CGF), the specialist lender for the creative industries. CGF is a fund set up by Creative England and ethical bank Triodos Bank UK, to provide vital scale-up finance to the UK’s most promising creative businesses. Read more.

Yumello is an Atlas Mountains-inspired nut butter brand from Somerset which has raised £100,000 from its online community in just two weeks. Yumello was one of the first companies to participate in the pilot Somerset Catalyst programme in 2019 and has since landed a place on its inaugural full 2020 programme. Read more.

Two additional investments were recorded by our data partner, Beauhurst but they were not disclosed, these totalled £170,000.

If you are interested in investing in companies in the West of England, please sign up to join us for Silicon Gorge, the premier pitching competition for the region which will take place on 12th November, 2-5pm to see 11 exciting companies pitching for £150k – £1.5M.

This article is written as part of the Investment Activator Programme (IAP) in the West of England. This programme is run by TechSPARK and is kindly sponsored by TLT LLP, delaware, Smith & Williamson, West of England Combined Authority, UWE, Sanderson, Engine Shed and Rocketmakers.

If you are an investor and you would like to receive the regular newsletter and event invitations for the QIB, please find more information and sign up: https://www.scaleupgenerator.co.uk/articles/qib-101

And finally, if you are raising investment for your business and you would like to submit your one page proposition for the next QIB event, please find more information at the bottom of this page: https://www.scaleupgenerator.co.uk/articles/qib-101

About the Investment Activator Programme

Engine Shed is a partner in the Investor Activator Programme which helps catalyse investment into fast-growing startups in the West of England. The Investment Activator Programme is run by TechSPARK and is kindly sponsored by TLT LLP, delaware, Smith & Williamson, West of England Combined Authority, UWE, Sanderson, Rocketmakers and Engine Shed.