Bristol software firm uploads £1m new funding
By By Rob Buckland
Fledgling Bristol software company Brightpearl has secured funding worth nearly £1million to help it expand, thanks to technology business acceleration specialists SETsquared.
Brightpearl, which provides small- and medium-sized firms with integrated web-based software for accounting, customer relationship management, stock control and e-commerce, approached SETsquared in May last year to help with business planning.
Following a year of tailored mentoring and direction at SETsquared’s Business Acceleration Centre in Bristol, Brightpearl is now moving into the global business-to-business market with an effective business model, marketing strategy along with the funding from Bath-based Eden Ventures and Notion Capital, based in Cheltenham.
Acceleration Centre director Nick Sturge said: “When we met Brightpearl they were already trading but needed specific advice from people who understood their product and marketplace. SETsquared is all about hi-tech businesses which have potential for fast-track high growth.”
SETsquared, an enterprise partnership of Bristol, Bath, Southampton & Surrey universities, connects industry and academic research through technology transfer, licensing, and creating spin-out businesses.
“But most importantly during times of recession, the partnership drives new business opportunities from within the community, called ‘spin-ins’ of which Brightpearl is an example,” added Nick.
Through its Business Acceleration Centres in Bath, Bristol, Guildford and Southampton, SETsquared has incubated more than 200 companies of which over 80% were ‘spin-ins’ looking for help to grow their business. In the Bristol centre alone, more than £45m has been raised by its member companies in the past two years.
SETsquared’s acceleration centres offer services from low-cost desk space for start-ups to entrepreneurs in residence as well as a demanding business review panel (BRP) process – a concept that helps small, growing businesses keep up the pace of development and check for pitfalls.
The company is invited to face a bespoke panel of experts in their field who challenge the entrepreneurs on their strategy and help identify areas of weakness or scope for development. The venture will then take forward the actions agreed and their progress is usually assessed every four months.
The founders of BrightPearl were put through a BRP designed specifically as a model board meeting to help them prepare for the critical period after investment. This has proved a key enabler to their growth.
Brightpearl co-founder and director Andrew Mulvenna said: “BRP was great for us because it can be tailored to what the company needs at the time. The first panel focused on our markets and business model, but we then needed to get ready to seek investment funding, so our second panel was designed to reflect a typical board meeting where stakeholders and investors would be present.”
Notion Capital’s Ben White, a successful entrepreneur himself, will be among the speakers at Bristol SETsquared’s garden party this evening where investors, grant-funders, industry contacts and members of SETsquared’s support and advice network will meet 20 of the centre’s highest-flying members.
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