Startup Support in...Bristol and Bath
by Startacus Admin
Bristol and Bath based early-stage startups and entrepreneurs take note - here's the lowdown on key startup support and help available where you are...
Away from the established startup hubs like London, the support for setting up a business isn’t always so clear. It’s not a lack of support, just a quieter ecosystem that takes a little more work to unearth. We want to help with this by highlighting what some other UK cities, have to offer for startups and entrepreneurs.
We’ve toured the southern cities of Southampton and Portsmouth and now we’re heading to the historic Roman city of Bath and its maritime neighbour Bristol.
Co-Working space
The Guild in Bath offers hot desking and dedicated desks, and there’s a stormtrooper painted on the wall, so… Membership includes gourmet coffee and weekly events like 
cake on Wednesdays and beer on Fridays, and while it isn’t inclusive of things others are, members do get a discount on meeting room bookings, printing, etc.
Hub XV at Bath Racecourse is a new co-working space starting at £75 per month for one day per week. Free hot drinks, free parking, free seminars and free networking events offset the fact that it isn’t available on weekends.
Spaces has a spot in Bath at Northgate House. It offers dedicated desks as well as hot desking, and Spaces has co-working spots all over the place, so you can not only be confident that you are in good hands, but also visit these spaces as part of your membership when you’re on the road.
Redbrick House in central Bristol is a not-for-profit designed originally to house social enterprise PAPER, and it is to this that proceeds from tenants go. Across three floors, there is space for solitary working, collaboration, fixed desks, hot desking, and art studios, and the space always promotes peer-to-peer learning and collaboration, and provides free personal and business development workshops.
Pollen Place in Bristol offers hot desking and fixed desks from £20 for a day to £170 per month, and includes tea and coffee, printing, discounts for the local tapas bar, and free Friday beers.
Origin Workspace in Bristol offers flexible working with health and wellbeing at its core. As well as access to its in-house gym and studio, they offer free fruit and a workspace designed for wellness. Also free tea and coffee.
Finances
Bristol Private Equity Club is formed by a number of businesspeople who are looking to invest in the seed rounds of local startups. This is not an all-or-nothing fund, as the members look at each proposal as individuals, and anywhere from just one to all of them may choose to invest.
With an office in Bristol, BGF invests in early-stage businesses, among others. With 14 offices, they say they are the most active growth investor in the UK and Ireland.
For those startups using crowdfunding to get going or grow, you can use the Bristol-based Hyperstarter tool to identify weaknesses in your campaign and improve it. They also offer tailored, hands-on support beyond the tool to help campaigns achieve their ultimate funding goals and beyond.
For anyone in the South West looking to go down the road of loans, SWIG Finance offers business loands to SMEs and startups.
The startup ecosystem and programmes
SETsquared is a partnership with several universities, including the University of Bath, and runs a business incubator and accelerator. It is a highly regarded platform that includes mentorship, business support, investor 
readiness training, and more.
In central Bristol, Unit DX is a science incubator, bringing together specialist facilities with specialist business support. Unit DX is open to any science-based startups, and their existing tenants have a focus on bio-design and quantum technologies.
In Bristol, Pervasive Media Studio’s focus is on early-stage ideas that combine creativity and technology and that don’t necessarily have a clear market or end-point, instead encouraging innovation and imagination through being in an open, shared workspace.
A very specific entry, but for entrepreneurs focusing on quantum technologies, the University of Bristol offers a one-year programme in which you will be paid £28,000 as a personal salary for the year, be given 6 months of intensive teaching, another 6 months to develop your innovations and business (along with £12,000 to do so), and culminating in an investor pitch. During this time you will be given a space in the aforementioned Unit DX.
As always, this is not an exhaustive list, so feel free to let us know at editorial@startacus.net if you think there is a particularly deserving entity in any of these categories.
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
.jpg)
New cross-border collaboration project featuring interactive portal and series of networking events to be delivered by TechIreland and Startacus, with support from InterTradeIreland’s Synergy initiative.
In London later this week and interested in learning how AI can help startups scale? Book your ticket now for this free event from Women in AI featuring a panel of industry experts discussing just that.
The latest Funding Review from TechIreland reveals that Irish Startups raised €746M in the first-half 2022 but early-stage rounds have dropped to a five-year low.
London-based SaaS startup Evorra has created a data marketplace enabling brands and agencies to build and scale their marketing audiences.
Artist John Kerr set to exhibit a series of personal paintings at The Spot, the urban-art focused gallery in Derry as part of Culture Night 2022.
The lowdown on customer behaviour analysis - what it's all about, the kinds of things that can have an impact on it and how to get it right.
.png)
The innovative businesses participating in this year’s AI Accelerator, delivered by The University of Edinburgh’s Innovation Hub for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, the Bayes Centre are revealed.
Edinburgh-based startup SmpliCare innovating how we care and age by exploring the use of AI-driven wearables to predict the risk of falls and other age-related health issues
The lowdown on Haystack, the data insights and careers marketplace, connecting developers, designers and data scientists with innovative tech employers.
Remote working with a difference - Jarvo is a startup enabling homeowners to share workspaces within their neighbourhood which remote professionals can book out by the day.
Published on: 12th February 2019
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- TechIreland & Startacus promote cross-border business collaboration with InterTradeIreland support 26th Sep 2022 New cross-border collaboration project featuring interactive portal and series of networking events to be delivered by TechIreland and Startacus, with support from InterTradeIreland’s Synergy initiative.
- TechIreland publish their mid-year report on Irish startup and tech funding. 22nd Sep 2022 The latest Funding Review from TechIreland reveals that Irish Startups raised €746M in the first-half 2022 but early-stage rounds have dropped to a five-year low.
- University AI Accelerator programme announces new cohort companies 15th Sep 2022 The innovative businesses participating in this year’s AI Accelerator, delivered by The University of Edinburgh’s Innovation Hub for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, the Bayes Centre are revealed.
- New event connects Scottish scaleups with Global Investor community 13th Sep 2022 New business event Invest2Scale aims to support Scottish scaleups by introducing them to investors and VCs based across the UK and beyond.
