SETsquared named top start-up hub in UK and Ireland

By Nicky Godding

15 March 2024

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SETSquared, the enterprise partnership and a collaboration between the six leading research-led UK universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey, has been named the top start-up hub in the UK and Ireland by the Financial Times and Statista’s Special Report on Europe’s Leading Startup Hubs.

The report ranked 125 start-up hubs across 21 European countries using data and feedback from alumni and independent experts, including investors, and it also examined the success of emerging companies.

SETsquared came in at No 3, with another UK start-up hub, Founder’s Factory, at No 4.

Last year, SETsquared Bristol supported 121 companies across 20 sectors. Those companies raised a combined £50 million and to date, companies supported by SETsquared in Bristol have raised more than £710 million, achieving more than £45 million in revenues and created more than 300 jobs.

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 start-up’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.”

With six business acceleration centres and a range of sector-based innovation and investment support programmes, SETsquared’s mission is to turn innovation into thriving business. Since 2002, it has supported over 5,000 entrepreneurs working in the most challenging fields of science and technology to raise £4.4bn in investment.

The report, compiled alongside Statista and Sifted, rated each start-up 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 start-ups to have emerged from each hub.

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.