Our Approach
We are dedicated investor partners committed to fostering exceptional talent, bold innovation, and transformative solutions within the Greater South West. We’re particularly focussed on highly impactful innovations tackling critical global challenges in Sustainability and Modern Healthcare from pre-seed to Series A. As seasoned entrepreneurs and operators, we understand the grind, the passions, and the thrill that comes with launching and scaling a start-up. We provide not only funding but also strategic commercial guidance, C-suite level global connections, and specialised sectoral insgihted with the support of our diverse and experienced Advisory group.
Company Strengths
To be investable our target companies will typically have the following traits:
Strong teams – we expect to back businesses with a minimum team in place with most of the complementary skills required for them to grow quickly
Businesses where our team’s knowledge and networks have the potential to add value
Focussed business strategy & sufficient indicators that their product / service will be needed / valued by the market in the 5 years post-investment
People with whom we are confident we can have a constructive working relationship
A clear competitive advantage over other firms in their niche, for example, protectable Intellectual Property in the form of patents or a body of knowledge acquired over time
An identifiable and validated community of customers
Our Sector Focus
ONS estimates from 2017 predict that the UK low-carbon economy will grow by an estimated 11% per year between 2020 and 2030 – four times faster than the rest of the economy.
To get to carbon neutrality a combination of approaches is needed covering all aspects of consumer life, business, agriculture, building, transport, as well as strong focus on renewable energy, cleaner fossil fuels and innovative energy management
New technological advancements in these areas are ever-changing, but often lack investment. Many of these low carbon solutions, while technically proven, will need to be scaled up to make them more economically viable.
Consequently, we have a broad view of businesses who have the capability of contributing to net zero carbon emissions. This could include investments in both upstream and downstream production and distribution of electrons, as well as businesses that have an innovative approach to a significant overall reduction in carbon emissions.
The UK’s legally binding target is to achieve net zero carbon by 2050 and the intent of many of the South West regions is to achieve net zero by 2030. To achieve this, much of how we live today will have to fundamentally change. This is driving a level of innovation and significant public and institutional support for that innovation.
Examples of Net Zero Carbon Regional Activity
- The South West Floating Offshore Wind Accelerator is being led by Wave Hub, the Cornwall Council-owned marine renewables research and technology organisation, in collaboration with the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), University of Plymouth, University of Exeter, the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, A&P Group, Cornwall Council and Plymouth City Council
- University of Plymouth Marine Renewable Energy programme & Supergen Initiative (Sustainable PowER GENeration) is providing focused academic research and joint industry / academia research into key sector challenges such as bioenergy; energy networks; energy storage; fuel cells; hydrogen and other vectors
- Net Zero Exeter 2030 Plan: A Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality. A roadmap adopted by the council that will enable the City to get to net zero within 10 years. This is likely to ensure significant contracts to innovative small companies who are able to assist the city with the many changes & efficiency improvements required to make this transition.
“Breakthrough innovation is necessary – this is the single biggest business opportunity in human history.”
Dr. Jonathan Foley, Executive Director of Project Drawdown.
The rising cost of healthcare has been driving significant innovation and investment in the field of optimising healthcare, this is particularly evident in digitisation initiatives as well as innovation in biotech. There are strong initiatives in both these areas within the region but as yet a limited record of monetising those ventures.
In particular, there is an emerging group of opportunities coming out of the Exeter healthcare hub which combines, a strong and growing academic grouping within University of Exeter (biosciences, mathematics, computing, engineering and physics), a leading medical school at the University; a high level teaching hospital in the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS FT.
We are observing several patented technologies emerging from this hub. Primarily, emerging from original research offering licensing opportunities and / or spin-out potential. These range from novel pharmaceutical platforms for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the drug discovery pipeline, to initiatives stemming from experimental medicine using novel plant extracts for uses in nutrition, human health and agritech. Equally important, digital healthcare continues to expand regionally and nationally, and with good access in the region to a capable data analysis workforce, we are observing a number of early-stage companies projecting high growth in the sector in the next few years through building recurring revenues.
Examples of Optimising Healthcare Regional Activity
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly has prioritised e-health & in March 2020 a further £4m in grants was provided to continue University of Plymouth’s support to businesses developing technology in this area. The aim is to create a sustainable ‘eHealth’ sector in the region that will continue to flourish long after the project is complete.
“As we look toward the future of healthcare, there are four industry-level changes that could disrupt healthcare value pools as they exist today: modernized transaction and data infrastructure; radically more efficient medical supply chain; faster, more effective therapy development; and new, personalized, and intuitive healthcare ecosystems.”
McKinsey &Co 2019
Complimentary Regional Initiatives
We know first hand the breadth of strong entrepreneurial talent based in the South West that is partnered with truly ground breaking science and ideas. Our focus means that we can be readily available to provide advice and support to guide our Founders towards growth opportunities
Gravity is a 635 acre site of scalable, flexible and shared workspace. Ideally located in the South West with unrivalled transport links.
Tech South West is run by tech companies and clusters including Digital Plymouth, TechSPARK, Digital Northern Devon, Software Cornwall, Digital Taunton, Tech Exeter, Engine Shed and Silicon South.
Launchpad is an innovative, post-graduate incubation and acceleration programme developed by Falmouth University that creates new digital businesses to meet identified market demand in just 12 months.
Engine Shed is a collaboration between Bristol City Council, the University of Bristol and the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Engine Shed is a hub where businesses, entrepreneurs, academics, social innovators, and corporates collaborate.
Porton Down Innovation Centre is an exciting new development to augment the established Porton Science Park in south Wiltshire. Home to the Ministry of Defence’s Defence and Science Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Public Health England (PHE) Porton and Porton Biopharma Ltd.
Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy Hub are an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded research consortium. They provide research leadership to connect academia, industry, policy and public stakeholders, inspire innovation and maximise societal value in offshore wind, wave and tidal energy.