SETsquared ranked in the top three start-up hubs in Europe

The SETsquared Partnership has been ranked as the 3rd leading start-up hub in Europe and the top entry from the UK and Ireland by the Financial Times and Statista’s Special Report on Europe’s Leading Start-Up 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 is recognised for its unique collaboration model across six research-intensive universities and the quality of its place-based support for deep tech start-ups, alongside the scale, expertise, and capabilities that the six universities bring across the South and South West regions.

Marty Reid, Executive Director of SETsquared, says, “It’s fantastic to be recognised as one of the top three start-up 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.

See the full rankings here: https://rankings.ft.com/incubator-accelerator-programmes-europe/c/ranking

Notes to Editors

SETsquared is a unique enterprise partnership between the six leading research-led UK universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. Our mission is to turn innovation into thriving business, maximising the impact of our combined £600m research portfolio and driving social and economic impact by supporting academics, students and regional businesses with world-leading business incubation, innovation, and growth support services.

To date, we have collectively created over 200 spin-out companies, supported over 5000 entrepreneurs working in the most challenging fields of science and technology, and helped businesses raise over £4.4bn in investment and funding.


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About SETsquared Partnership

SETsquared is the global no. 1 business incubator and enterprise partnership of the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. Through specialist business support and innovation programmes, SETsquared helps companies grow and raise public funding and private investment.