In July, 16 companies successfully closed equity investment rounds in the South West of England. Between them, they raised nearly £60million across a range of round sizes from pre-seed all the way through to acquisition and across geographies from Bristol to Poole and Cheltenham to Exeter.
Only five of the 16 companies have disclosed their investments in the press totalling well in excess of £53m. You can read more about those companies below.
InsideAsia Tours
A Bristol-headquartered Asia tour specialist has secured a significant investment from Blandford Capital, in a deal worked on by prominent advisers. Inside Travel Group was co-founded in 2000 by university friends Alastair Donnelly and Simon King after living in Japan and comprises InsideJapan and InsideAsia Tours.
Owni
SETsquared Exeter member OWNI, co-founded by repeat social entrepreneur Kalkidan Legesse, has secured $420,000 to scale its re-commerce as a service technology across the United Kingdom this year. To complete the raise, the circular economy start-up was selected to receive $100,000 from the second annual Google for Startups European Black Founders Fund.
Penny
Bristol-based fintech Penny has raised £4m in seed funding, with contributions coming from Google’s Gradient Ventures and Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield. First reported by TechCrunch, Penny is a mobile app that tracks people’s pensions and uses automation to combine them all into one account.
Plimsoll Productions
ITV plc announced that it has agreed to acquire a majority interest of 79.5% in Plimsoll Productions, the largest independent producer of natural history programmes in the world and a growing premium factual producer, for a cash consideration of approximately £103.5 million, valuing Plimsoll at an Enterprise Value of £131 million. Founded in Bristol in 2013, the centre of excellence for natural history programming, the Bafta, Emmy and Academy award winning producer has produced hundreds of hours of content which is watched, and sold, in nearly 200 countries.
Spectrum Medical
A Cheltenham-headquartered business which specialises in technology-enabled medical equipment has secured investment from CVC Capital Partners in a deal which values the company at up to £1bn. Spectrum Medical Group and CVC Capital Partners VIII have signed a definitive partnership agreement to support the continued growth of the company.
In addition to these five great stories, Condense has shared news of their $4.5m raise which was closed in December 2021. SETsquared Bristol member Condense is the world’s first company to deliver the power, connection and immersiveness of live, real-world events into the metaverse.
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, West of England Combined Authority, UWE, Sanderson, Engine Shed and Rocketmakers. Find out more about the IAP here.
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