Members of SetSquared Bristol generated less funding than in 2017, though it may instead remember last year for diabetes treatment developer Ziylo's sale to Novo for up to $800m.
SetSquared Bristol, one leg of the incubator partnership between the universities of Bristol, Bath, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey, has revealed that its 80-plus member businesses raised a total of £82.1m ($105m at 2018 end) last year, Business Leader reported on Tuesday.
The result is down 41.6% in year-on-year dollar terms on the $180m captured by SetSquared Bristol affiliates in 2017. Participants generated a combined turnover of $55.5m last year and created 1,090 jobs in the Bristol city region.
Twenty-six SetSquared Bristol affiliates captured capital in 2018, including University of Bristol haptics spinout Ultrahaptics, which closed $44.8m of series C money from investors including commercialisation firm IP Group, and diabetes treatment developer Ziylo, which signed an up-to $800m sale to drug maker Novo Nordisk in August last year.
Other infusions of cash for its members included $2.5m for University College London quantum computing spinout Kets Quantum Security from investors including database technology supplier Kx Systems, and $1.3m of equity and grant money for irrigation system developer Lettus Grow.
Monika Radclyffe, centre director for SetSquared Bristol, said: “2018 was a brilliant year for SetSquared Bristol. We have celebrated some notable successes and will build on these achievements to set new goals for the future.
“We want to continue to grow our membership and expand our accelerator program to suit ever-changing needs of technology startups.
“Bristol is known internationally as a diverse and creative city, and we hope that SetSquared Bristol can be representative of that as we continue to evolve our world-class business support.”
