Enterprise partnership celebrates £70m of funding for new businesses

Left to right: Dr Neil Bradshaw, Chair of the SETsquared Partnership Management Team and Director of Enterprise at the University of Bristol; Francis Carpenter, Chief Executive of the European Investment Fund; Lord Sainsbury of Turville, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science and Innovation

30 October 2006

The SETsquared Partnership, the enterprise collaboration of the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Southampton and Surrey, held a showcase event earlier this month to celebrate its success in helping to raise more than £70 million of funding for new business ventures since its inception.

The partnership has helped new external ventures to raise more than £25 million of early-stage funding and has raised over £45 million of follow-on funding for university spinouts. In addition, the flotation of four SETsquared university spinout companies since the beginning of 2002 has created a combined market capitalisation of over £160 million.

Lord Sainsbury, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science and Innovation, was the keynote speaker at the event, which showcased new technology and science companies from the University of Bristol, among others, to more than 150 investors.

Lord Sainsbury said: “The government strongly supports university research and its commercialisation and the UK’s university-grown science and technology businesses. The four universities of the SETsquared Partnership, which started as a government-sponsored initiative to promote enterprise, are advancing their global research and are capable of attracting venture capital.”

For the full story, go to www.bristol.ac.uk/research/news/2006/201006.