Are you an investor looking for your next deal? Or perhaps you’re an entrepreneur keen to explore options for equity funding? There are a bunch of events coming up in 2019 and this blog gives you the lowdown.
Rewind 5 years and there was very little investment activity in the region of the West of England (or Bristol and Bath as it’s known to its friends). In fact, according to Beauhurst data, there were just 93 Fundraisings in 2014 which totaled £62.1M (that’s an average of £67,000 per transaction). Fast forward to 2018 and we saw 132 fundraisings in the region which totaled more than £304M across the area of South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Bath, and Bristol. That’s an impressive new average of £2.3M – though of course, the profile of those fundraisings includes a high of Graphcore at £150M+ and Ultrahaptics at £35M and at the other end of the scale, 20 companies that raised £50k or less. So that (by my calculation) is a 390% increase in equity raised in just 4 years.
And it looks like this trend is here to stay with fundraisings in 2019 currently set at £224M over 19 transactions.
And with more investments, comes more investment related activity – pitch events, networking events and much much more besides. I have assembled a list of all those events that I know about below – if I’ve missed anything, or if you’re planning a new event related to investment, please get in touch and share the intel.
> Engine Shed Quarterly Investment Briefings – 30 May, 12 Sept, 28 Nov – to help investors to network, share and learn and to circulate a summary of companies raising investment via e-newsletter.
Find out more about the QIB here: https://scaleupgenerator.co.uk/investment and sign up to the newsletter or to individual events (investors only) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/engine-shed-4244274397
> UKBAA and Innovate UK Funding Options Series – 22 May, An event for investors and leaders seeking investment. Expect a mixture of presentations from key members of the investment community, industry experts and successful entrepreneurs, notably focusing on case studies and personal experience, as a means to both give practical insights and inspiration.
Apply to attend here: https://connectedinvesting.ukbaa.org.uk/bristol-event/
> Bristol Tech Day – 23 May, 10:00 – 16:00 – WHY Communications, in partnership with NOTWICS and Engine Shed, is organising an investor day for Bristol start-ups and scale-ups showcasing the best of tech from the south west. The event, which is hosted by Engine Shed, will give companies from Bristol and the surrounding area an audience with some of the most prestigious investors from both London and the local ecosytem.
Sign up here: https://www.whycommunications.com/showcase
> Invest – Connect – Explore 8 May 16:00 – 18:30 – Discover UWE Bristol’s University Enterprise Zone. Following on from the success of this year’s event UWE are delighted to invite you to join them for Invest – Connect – Explore 2019. There will more opportunities to meet the ambitious businesses based in UWE Bristol’s University Enterprise Zone and hear about the support available to growing and innovative businesses across the region. You can discover how you and your organisations can invest, connect and explore partnerships and collaboration.
Contact UWE to sign up
> SETsquared TechXpo – 18 June – The highlight of SETsquared Bristol’s calendar, the Annual Tech-Xpo showcase, presenting some of the best, most disruptive technology ventures from the Global #1 University Business Incubator. Whether you are looking for the next company to collaborate with, invest in, or are simply curious to see what sort of innovative tech businesses we are incubating, this event is not to be missed! Watch what happened last year.
Watch this space for more details or contact SETsquared Bristol.
> TechSPARK Sparkies – 27 June – an awards party to celebrate tech businesses in Bristol and Bath.
Details still to come!
Watch this space
- Regional Investment dinner/roundtable with Scaleup Institute and British Business Bank – May 2019 – a conversation about investment challenges in the region, with a focus on finding solutions and working collaboratively to achieve them.
- Silicon Valley Bank event // ADV – Series A+ // Raising investment – we hope to see this team collaborate in the Summer to bring us another jam-packed evening after their inaugural South West event in 2018.
- Silicon Gorge – regular pitch competition and investor event which has happened every year since 2016. The team at TechSPARK who organise it, are seeking sponsorship at the moment. Likely to be in November 2019.
What has already happened this year
> Financing Inclusive Growth – 3 April, 3.30pm, Engine Shed – a national event with a regional focus – for any investor, intermediary, enterprise or stakeholder interested in this field. The event will explore both how businesses & investors can identify, support and benefit from innovative business ideas and future investment opportunities and what can be learned from the experience of national and regional investment funds as the social & ethical investment space broadens.
> Are you Investor Ready? 13 March 2019, 4.30pm – 8.00pm – a panel of experts from Burges Salmon, Downing, WHIreland and SETsquared to find out if you are investor ready. The panel will be covering a range of topics including founders & investor expectations and relationships; what to be aware of from a legal viewpoint; how to build shareholder confidence; the importance of management structure, behaviour & attitude. We will also be joined by Tim Ward, CEO of the Quoted Companies Alliance, who will discuss the Corporate Governance Code and how it can help build good practice before entering the investment market.
Engine Shed QIB – the first event of the year took place on 6 March, find out more about what we discussed here: https://scaleupgenerator.co.uk/articles/qib-q1-2019-angel-investment>
> Seedrs Pitch event at Runway East 6 March – 5 companies pitched for investment to an audience of registered Seedrs investors. This was the first event that Seedrs has run outside London.
*This blog is part of the work of our regional Scale up Enabler, Briony Phillips. Her role, in part, is to make sure we’re working collaboratively to help respond to the challenges faced by fast growth companies in the West of England. Explore Scaleupgenerator.co.uk to find out more. *