• Swindon & Wiltshire Innovation
• Friday March 7 2025
• Author Name: Peter Davison

SETsquared spinouts raised £270 million of investment in 2024

University spinouts emerging from the SETsquared Partnership universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey raised £273 million of investment in 2024, according to new figures released by the organisation this week.

The figure is double the previous year’s total, and represented more than 10 per cent of the total estimated investment raised by all UK spin-out companies.

The funding was secured by 43 companies who are transforming pioneering university research into market-ready products and service.

Spinouts in the health and life sciences sectors attracted the most significant investments, with cleantech solutions and semiconductor technologies also gaining strong investor interest.

Success stories include University of Bristol spinout Forefront RF, fabless semiconductor company poised to simplify mobile radio front-end designs in smartphones, wearables and other IoT devices with a breakthrough tuneable duplexer, and Naturbeads, a University of Bath spinout which eveloped natural and biodegradable microspheres made from cellulose to replace polluting microplastics.

The companies raised £16 million and £7.8 million respectively in 2024.

Marty Reid, executive director at SETsquared, said: “It’s an exciting time for UK spin-outs.

“With market and government interest in them at an all-time high, spin-outs are being recognised as essential engines of innovation, growth, and economic prosperity.

“The scale and quality of science and technology companies emerging from across the SETsquared University clusters is a match for any ecosystem.

“It reflects years of significant investment in translational research and the strong entrepreneurial support ecosystem across our partnership.

“Half of the spin-outs raised investment at seed stage, so there are still significant growth opportunities within this cohort and we are seeing a real wave of new scientific entrepreneurial talent emerging all the time.”

Last year Setsquared was named the best start-up support hub in the UK – and the third top in Europe – by the Financial Times.