Focusing on helping ambitious entrepreneurs on their startup adventures, among other organisations, TechSPARK is a tech information hub bringing the community together in Bristol, Bath and the West of England region. The hub hosts the largest tech meetup membership in the West (4,500+ members) with a focus on fast-growing startups, scaleups and tech companies.
With resources like this at your disposal, Bristol is a perfect start for creating a business, and Maddyness has selected some of the fastest-growing businesses to watch in Bristol.
Graphcore builds processors and semiconductors to power accelerated machine-learning and AI. Recently, the company raised a $150M Series D funding round which brought the company’s valuation to $1.95B. Graphcore has created a new processor, the Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), specifically designed for AI. The IPU’s unique architecture means developers can run current machine learning models faster as well as allowing AI researchers to undertake new types of work to unleash more breakthroughs in machine intelligence.
YellowDog helps businesses use the best computing tools for hybrid and multi-cloud workloads. Their platform is an intelligent, predictive scheduling and orchestrating solution used all over the world for multiple applications. The YellowDog platform enables customers to scale, control and optimise their computing power, through intelligent orchestration, in order for them to accomplish more.
Ultraleap was formed when Leap Motion and Ultrahaptics came together in May 2019. The companies changed the face of interaction by bringing together the world’s most powerful 3D hand tracking with the only haptic technology able to create the sensation of touch in mid-air. Ultraleap technologies enables customers to reach into the digital world effortlessly, intuitively and in 3D, just like in the real world, without controllers or touchscreens. It’s called spatial interaction and it will transform everything.
Launched in 2009, OVO Group is driving progress towards net zero carbon living. OVO is a collection of companies with a single vision: to power human progress with clean affordable energy for everyone. The climate crisis is humanity’s greatest challenge and the OVO Group organisations are all working together to reduce our collective carbon emissions to zero.
Open Bionics is a prosthetics company developing affordable, assistive devices that can enhance the human body. Open Bionics is on a mission to make beautiful bionic limbs more accessible. The company first introduced the Hero Arm, a stylish multi-grip bionic arm and the most affordable bionic arm ever at less than half the price of its nearest competitor. Each Hero Arm is custom-built, and for the first time ever they are available for amputees as young as nine.
LettUs Grow was founded in 2015 to tackle some of the greatest challenges facing the world today: CO2 emissions, waste, ecosystem collapse and food security. LettUs Grow brings affordable food growing to the modern city. Their simple, efficient and sustainable patent-pending aeroponic technology delivers consistent, rapid yields for indoor farms.
Scribeless creates handwritten letters at scale to help transform words into an effective marketing campaign proven to boost levels of customer engagement and convert potential leads. Whether you are sending ten or ten thousand letters, Scribeless can deliver quality physical correspondence that will encourage brand loyalty and nurture an intimate business-customer relationship based on trust.
Immersive Labs operates a real-time, gamified learning system for security skills, derived from threat intelligence which can be accessed entirely within the browser, anytime, anywhere. Their award-winning platform can take your team from beginner to expert at a pace that suits them and can be customised to focus on a particular area allowing them to upskill in the best way for your business.
Blu Wireless is disrupting the market with mmWave wireless solutions of fibre-level performance that are economically smart and reliable. Delivering its intelligent System IP to licensees is at its core, but with expertise in everything from chip design to system solutions solving the technical challenges faced in mmWave carrier-grade applications, Blu Wireless has much more to offer.
Reach Robotics are innovators, creators, roboticists and entertainers. Their passionate team is driven by a creative desire to entertain, inspire and educate. The team come from all walks of life but are heading in the same direction, unified by a shared belief in the power of technology and the potential of consumer robotics.
Brightpearl is a retail operations platform for retailers and wholesalers, whose mission is to automate the back office so merchants can spend their time and money growing their businesses. Brightpearl’s complete back-office solution includes financial management, inventory and sales order management, purchasing and supplier management, CRM, fulfilment, warehousing and logistics. On top of that, Brightpearl has high-performing integration with the major e-commerce platforms, including Magento, BigCommerce and Shopify. The company works with over 1,200 businesses in 26 countries, manages over 10 million transactions and generates $3B of business a year.
TravelLocal is a high-growth, VC-backed travel company that sells tailor-made holidays connecting travellers to hand-picked local agencies based in over 45 destinations worldwide, all through a slick and easy-to-use web platform. The company’s global customer base gets a better, more immersive experience and more of their money reaches the destination itself, which represents a fairer and equitable approach to travel for everyone involved.
Loop Email is a collaboration hub based around the user’s existing email accounts. The solution gathers email, chat messaging and files and enables the entire team to communicate inside one app. Loop is a secure email app that can upgrade any Gmail or Outlook inbox. It reorganizes your mail around the people, tasks and teams that matter to you so you can work smarter, drive productivity, and supercharge your collaboration.
Focusing on helping ambitious entrepreneurs in their startup adventures, among others, TechSPARK is a tech information hub bringing the community together in Bristol, Bath and the West of England region. The hub hosts the largest tech meetup membership in the West (4,500+ members) with a focus on fast-growing startups, scaleups and tech companies. With these resources at disposal, Bristol is a perfect start for serial entrepreneurs.
Bristol-based Graphcore builds processors to power accelerated machine-learning and AI. Recently, the company has raised a $150M Series D round which brought the company’s valuation to $1.95B. This investment was led by Baillie Gifford, Mayfair Equity Partners and M&G Investments as well as existing investors including Merian Chrysalis.
Graphcore had previously received investments from leading figures in machine learning including DeepMind, Cambridge University, Uber, UC Berkeley, and OpenAI. The money raised will help the company to continue their commitment to investment and R&D as well as the global expansion of the business.
