The incubator has created a program dedicated to scale-up companies thanks to a $6.7m commitment from the Connecting Capability Fund.

SetSquared, the incubator partnership between Universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey, launched a scale-up program last week with £5m ($6.7m) in government funding.

The money was supplied by UK Research and Innovation council Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund.

The program will aim to support hundreds of technology startups that have the potential to become large companies, with a view of generating 30,000 high-skilled jobs and drive research and development investments.

Don Spalinger, chairman of the SetSquared management board, said: “Since SetSquared started, we have helped over 3,500 businesses who have gone on to create over 20,000 jobs and raise £1.5bn in investment.

“Today we are launching our new scale-up program which will help hundreds of SMEs over the coming years access the knowledge and resources of our five universities to accelerate their innovation and growth – this will benefit the UK economy in a major way.”