In addition, according to the rankings, Bristol comes first in terms of value its quantum spinouts have created.
The European Spinout Report 2025 is the first comprehensive analysis of the academic spinout sector across Europe, and finds that deep tech and life science startups spun out of European universities have a combined value of $398 billion and have generated almost 160,000 jobs.
The significance and influence of spinouts is growing. The report shows that they have become a bigger part of the wider technology ecosystem in across Europe in recent years, accounting for 40 percent of new deep tech and life sciences startups since 2019, 80 percent more than 2010-2018.
The report also states that the UK spinout ecosystem is evolving into a dynamic, nationwide market, with deep tech and life sciences driving growth. Once concentrated London, Oxford and Cambridge, activity is now dispersed across the country including Bristol, reinforcing the UKʼs position as a leading hub for innovation and investment.
Professor Michele Barbour, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor Enterprise & Innovation, said: “This ranking reflects the excellent quality of our research, the strong entrepreneurial culture amongst our academic community, the region’s robust and mature innovation support ecosystem, and the expert support the University is able to provide throughout the spin-out journey.”
Bristol now has over 90 active spin-out companies in its portfolio, who have collectively raised over £700m in investment over the last two years. These companies are an increasingly important route to the creation of societal and economic impact from our research.
Recent examples include:
- Purespring Therapeutics who recently closed an oversubscribed Series B financing round of £80mto support its pipeline including the initiation of a clinical trial for nephropathy, a common, chronic kidney disease primarily affecting young adults.
- Phasecraft, the world’s leading quantum algorithms company who raised $34 million in Series B fundingto accelerate its breakthrough work to transform quantum computing’s theoretical promise into practical applications. The company partners with leaders such as Google Quantum AI, IBM, Quantinuum, and QuEra are enabling the company to push even faster towards quantum advantage.
Andrew Wilson, Head of Commercialisation, Research, Enterprise and Innovation, added: “We are excited by the trajectory of our new and more established spin-out companies, which were created from our research with a mission to help solve some of world’s most pressing problems.
“We look forward to supporting more ground breaking companies and to making a difference to their success through new initiatives we are actively involved with, including the new investment fund with QantX and our partners across SetSquared and the Research England funded ‘deal readiness toolkit’ that we have co-created with investors, lawyers and other universities, in order to streamline the spin-out transaction process.”