INSIGHTS / News

Innovative ventures showcase breakthrough tech to corporate investors as CVC funding surges

A cohort of high-growth start-ups supported by SETsquared recently took centre stage at the Global Corporate Venturing (GCV) Symposium, Europe’s premier event for corporate innovation and venture investment, which brings together 350+ attendees from across 26 countries.

Bringing together the world’s leading corporate venture capitalists (CVCs), the event offered SETsquared founders a golden opportunity: to showcase cutting-edge technologies directly to global corporates actively seeking strategic partnerships and breakthrough solutions.

The backdrop? A rapidly expanding CVC landscape. According to GCV’s latest report, The World of Corporate Venturing 2025, the value of corporate-backed funding rounds surged by 20% in 2024, reaching $133 billion. Even more telling, the number of corporates engaging in venture investment has more than tripled in a decade, from 688 in 2014 to 2,344 in 2024, with corporate VCs now participating in one out of every six start-up deals.

Among the innovators showcased was Morpheus, a SETsquared Surrey venture that is pioneering a new method for modelling fluids, making it possible to run highly complex simulations effortlessly with the push of a button. This breakthrough will democratise access to fluid simulations for the first time, accelerating product design and safety testing for companies of all sizes. Fresh from Innovate UK’s ICURe Programme, the company is seeking corporate partners to pilot their prototype and aims to secure investment to develop a SaaS platform.

“From optimising helicopters and drones to enhancing flood defence systems, our simulation technology will transform product development cycles,” said Dr Linghan Li, Co-Founder of Morpheus. “The Symposium sparked exciting conversations with several global corporates, and we’re already planning follow-ups.”

SETsquared’s Investment Programme Manager, Chris Hill, added:

“We bring a cohort of start-ups here each year to initiate early engagement between founders and corporate investors. It’s about more than just raising capital; it’s about having the right conversations, making the right connections, and opening doors to strategic growth that traditional venture capital paths often miss. We’re now seeing real action from that engagement, and it’s changing the funding journey for the spin-outs and early-stage innovators we support.”

SETsquared, recognised globally as a leading university business incubator, offers its member ventures access to a powerful pipeline of investor showcases, industry introductions, and growth-focused programmes across its six UK centres and sector-based initiatives.

See the full list of companies that showcased at the event

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