BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT SCHEME GETS A BIG “YES” FROM BRISTOL CITY BUSINESSES

Businesses in Bristol city centre have voted overwhelmingly to renew the Business Improvement District scheme for a further five years.

Of all the votes cast by levy payers, 79 per cent were in favour of giving Bristol City Centre BID another five-year term.

Over the past five years a total of £5 million from the BID levy has been invested in making the city centre a better place to do business, along with additional grants and funding to the value of £500,000.

Projects over the past five years have included safety initiatives with the police and street pastors, enhanced street cleaning, and the creation and delivery of innovative events and campaigns to attract visitors to the city centre, including Bristol Light Festival (pictured), Hearts in Parks, Christmas Adventures and the annual festive lights.

The BID has pledged that Bristol Light Festival and Light Up Christmas will be two key annual events that will support businesses through the winter months by encouraging visitors to the city centre.

Street safety and cleaning initiatives will continue, alongside projects to 'green' parts of the city centre and support for individual businesses to reduce their environmental impact.

£4 million investment allows Anaphite to charge ahead with battery power technology

Bristol-based tech firm Anaphite, which is developing new technology to improve batteries for electric vehicles, has raised £4.1 million to develop the use of graphene in electric vehicles (EV) batteries to help cut manufacturing costs and charging times.

Anaphite’s technology incorporates graphene into the core battery electrode materials that store energy.

It is already in trials with a major EV battery manufacturer in Europe.

The firm was launched four years ago by two university graduates, who claim their technology can be “dropped in” to current manufacturing processes and could be used in commercial electric vehicle production by 2028.

The £1 million investment came from Bristol-based Wealth Club clients. Other investors included Blue Wire Capital, OION, Zero Carbon Capital, Silicon Roundabout Ventures and Deeptech Labs, which is highly regarded as an accelerator for deep tech companies.

Alex Hewitt, COO and Co-founder of Anaphite said: “I’m proud to have such a great group of investors joining our already wonderful backers as we move forward into the next stage of our growth.

“I truly believe we are in a great position to have a significant impact in the fight against climate change by accelerating the mass adoptions of EVs with our fastcharging graphene enhanced cathode technology."

Seven pioneering University of Bristol spin-outs raise £20 million

The University of Bristol has one of the UK’s top commercialisation teams, according to new data from Research England.

Sugar dots to supercharge photosynthesis, a quantum camera and a “genuinely ground-breaking probiotic” are among Bristol innovations to have attracted more than £19 million investment over the past nine months.

The results of Research England’s 2022 Knowledge Exchange Framework, highlight Bristol’s strengths in Intellectual Property and commercialisation. The framework uses data covering a wide range of a university’s activities to form a comprehensive series of metrics against which universities are assessed in relation to other Higher Education Providers for each area.

Research England’s figures reveal that The University of Bristol is one of the highest performing universities in the UK for driving commercialisation of research, and third in UK for average investment per spin-out.

SETsquared Bristol relaunches Breakthrough Bursary for minority ethnic tech founders

Technology incubator SETsquared Bristol is relaunching its Breakthrough Bursary for the fourth year.

The bursary is for UK tech entrepreneurs from a minority ethnic background, providing access to tailored business support at heavily discounted rates.

This includes coaching and mentoring, advice clinics, events, skills and training workshops and support to raise investment.

Awardees also benefit from SETsquared’s supportive community and three months’ free access to desk space in a shared office at the city’s Engine Shed.

Fourteen companies have been recipients of the bursary to date including South West-based start-ups FluoretiQ, Gritty Talent and LatchAid, and have raised a combined £2.7 million in investment.

Marty Reid, SETsquared Bristol director, said: “Inclusive and sustainable growth is more vital than ever in our current climate. Our ambition is to work towards levelling the playing field for minoritised groups within the tech sector by improving access to support, investment and networks. We look forward to welcoming new awardees with exciting ideas to our community.”

Since SETsquared Bristol launched the Breakthrough Bursary in 2019, companies at the incubator with founders from a minority ethnic background have increased from 14 per cent to 24 per cent. This compares favourably to the UK average where less than nine per cent of senior tech leaders are from a minority ethnic background.

Any UK-based entrepreneurs from a minority ethnic background can apply for the Breakthrough Bursary if they are developing a tech start-up, or growing an existing company.

Unicorns follow gorillas and Gromits on to the art trail scene

Bristol will be celebrating its 650th anniversary next year with a trail of unicorns.

Unicornfest will see a giant herd of unicorns, decorated by Bristol artists and schools’ creatives displayed in prominent locations across the city from July to September next year.

A pair of unicorns feature on the city’s coat of arms, so it seems fitting that the mythical beasts will follow on the heels of Wow! Gorillas – which kicked the whole art trail craze off in 2011 with 61 decorated life-sized fibreglass gorilla sculptures based on Bristol Zoo’s famous Alfred. It was followed by Gromit Unleashed, a collaboration between Aardman Animations and Bristol Children’s Hospital which saw 80 giant Gromits pop up around the town in 2013.

There will be at least 50 unicorns in two varieties – large, decorated by professional artists, and foal, painted by schoolchildren – around the city.

Businesses are being invited to sponsor a unicorn for the duration of the festival and they’ll be sold by auction in October in aid of Leukaemia Care.

Leukaemia Care CEO Zack PembertonWhiteley said: “We’re looking forward to working with businesses, schools and community groups to bring this exciting trail to life.

“As well as the many fantastic promotional benefits that being a sponsor brings, you will also be helping to raise money for Leukaemia Care and enabling us to continue our work supporting anybody who is affected by a diagnosis of leukaemia.”