INSIGHTS / News

Left to right: Laurence Pearce, xim, Steve Royffe, xim

Innovative tech businesses from across Southern England, including Beaconsoft Ltd, RedLux Ltd and xim Ltd from Southampton, came together in London yesterday to pitch for £20m of investment to an audience of 150 investors at SETsquared’s annual Accelerating Growth Investment Showcase.

David Bream, Programme Director at SETsquared in Southampton said:

“I am hugely proud of the success that businesses involved with SETsquared achieve on their pathway to growth. This year we have seen some extraordinary companies come forward with fantastic investment propositions.

“The investor community that we work with has turned out in significant numbers. This is a testament to the faith that they have in quality of the deal flow presented at SETsquared events. In 2016 businesses we supported raised £166.7m and I am confident after today, 2017 will also be a bumper year for the companies we have been working with.”

20 of the UK’s most exciting start-ups and scale-ups were at the showcase vying for investments of between £200k and £3m from an audience of more than 150 investors and corporates on 5^th December 2017. The businesses pitching at the event have developed technology in the sectors of advanced engineering, VR, retail, healthcare, robotics and cyber security.

Laurence Pearce, CEO of xim Ltd who developed Lifelight, a technology that can provide early warning of critical health changes in a person’s vital signs, said:

“The SETsquared partnership has opened the door to a range of investors and valuable business contacts. The coaching offered has also helped hone our pitch for investment”.

Davide Sangiovanni, Founder, Graffiti Syndicate said:

“There were many high-quality companies and I was impressed by the businesses. There were entrepreneurs from a range of ages which was good with some strong opportunities on offer. The propositions put forward were well considered and the pitches were very high-quality. I will definitely be returning next year.”

Over the last 15 years SETsquared has helped more than 1,500 businesses raise over £1.25bn in investment, as well as contributing over £3.8bn in GVA (Gross Value Added) to the UK economy with £8.6bn GVA estimated over the next decade – figures that contributed to it being named by UBI Global as the top university business incubator in the world.