• Swindon & Wiltshire Education, training and skills
• Wednesday April 10 2024
• Author Name: Peter Davison

SETsquared named top startup hub in UK

Bristol and Bath-based business incubator SETsquared has been named the best start-up support hub in the UK – and the third top in Europe.

The accolade comes from the Financial Times and Statista’s Special Report on Europe’s Leading Startup Hubs.

The report, compiled alongside Statista and Sifted, rated each startup hub based on data and feedback from its alumni across six categories, including mentoring and training development, infrastructure, legal assistance, business development, networking, and funding.

Independent experts, including angel investors, VCs, entrepreneurs and academics, also added their evaluations and additional scores were awarded according to the most successful startups to have emerged from each hub.

SETsquared has supported over 5,000 entrepreneurs in raising £4.4 billion in investment

Since 2002, SETsquared – a collaboration between the universities of Exeter, Bath, Bristol, Southampton, Surrey and Cardiff – has supported over 5,000 entrepreneurs working in the most challenging fields of science and technology to raise £4.4 billion in investment.

Marty Reid, executive director of SETsquared, said: “It’s fantastic to be recognised as one of the top three startup hubs in Europe.

“It’s a testament to the expertise and hard work from teams across our business acceleration centres and universities and to the culture of collaboration across the ecosystems that we are part of.”

“We don’t offer cookie-cutter-style acceleration. Our portfolio of support is really built around the diversity of startup’s needs, bringing together networks of mentors, advisors, and business connections to get ventures investor-ready or engaged in their target markets.

“We hope this ranking shows the enormous potential of regional ecosystems working together to build the globally leading companies we need to take on our biggest challenges.”

Last month it was revealed that companies that are part of SETsquared Bristol created 300 new jobs in 2023.

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