INSIGHTS / News

(Image above from left to right shows Chloe Donovan and Anna Woolerton from Natural Building Systems)

Twenty top tech start-ups, selected from across the SETsquared portfolio, pitched their investment opportunities to a room packed with investors and corporate venturers this week at the Global Corporate Venturing (GCV) Symposium in London.

The GCV Symposium is Europe’s leading corporate venturing and innovation event. It gave the pitching companies a unique platform to tap into an audience of corporates seeking the latest technologies to enhance their products and services alongside venture capital and angel investors.

Featuring start-ups in AI, materials, robotics, health tech, fintech, sustainable tech and cyber, the showcase touched on all the current hottest technology trends.

Chloe Donovan, who pitched Natural Building Systems, a start-up which has created a carbon-negative and bio-based modular construction system, said: “It’s been fantastic being able to meet with such a diverse range of attendees at this showcase. We’re raising a £2m seed investment round and have had some productive conversations with delegates interested in collaboration, product development, and potential investments. It’s also been great connecting with the other start-ups from such an interesting breadth of technology and innovation.”

Attendee Paul Price, IBM Ventures UK Leader, commented: “Innovation is at the core of IBM’s strategy. We want to push the boundaries of computing to create the products of the future that will meet the demands of the major societal challenges we face. To do that, we need to collaborate with agile start-ups that are at the cutting edge of technologies such as AI and quantum.”

“It was great to be on the panel that selected the final line-up of companies for this event. Not only did this give me early access to the pipeline of innovation coming through, but I also saw first-hand how well these SETsquared-supported companies are prepared in the lead-up to showcases.”

Serena Giaminardi, Programme Director, SETsquared, said: “One of the benefits of being a SETsquared member is regular opportunities to pitch for investment, with intensive investor readiness training in the lead-up. Bringing this Investment Showcase to the GCV Symposium has provided a unique platform for our members to pitch to global corporate players, and we thank our partners Global Corporate Venturing for enabling this to happen.”

Expressions of interest are open for investors to attend SETsquared’s next Investment Showcase (with a twist) in December – Investment Futures 24. In a departure from its traditional format, the December showcase will feature quick-fire investment pitches alongside roundtable discussions and a deep dive into the investment playing field in 2023/24 and beyond.

Register your interest in Investment Futures 24