The UK’s first ‘angel hub’ to support and encourage early stage investors has been launched in Bristol as one of a series of initiatives aimed at making it the country’s ‘scale-up’ capital.
The opening of the hub, based at Bristol’s Engine Shed innovation centre and backed by the UK British Angels Association (UKBAA), was announced yesterday along with a Scale-up Ecosystem Map, which illustrates the region’s support network for growing firms. 
The Bristol Angel Hub is designed to bring the early stage investment community in the West of England together to share good practice, learn, and discover new investment activities and opportunities
The map has been built using a newly formed dataset collected organically by Engine Shed’s scale-up enabler Briony Phillips.
The first public asset map of its kind, it is designed to help scale-up businesses identify the support available while also helping providers find opportunities to collaborate.
It will also show those outside the region what is available here. 
Both projects were launched at a Scale-Up Pow Wow staged at Engine Shed in partnership with accountancy group Smith & Williamson.
The event brought together regional stakeholders around a common purpose – to create the best region in the country for scale-up growth.
Briony Phillips, pictured, told the event that Bristol had already been identified as the best place in the country to start a business – now it should aim to become the best to scale up a business.
“The ecosystem map illustrates the vibrant support available for scale-up businesses in the West of England. We are interested to see how this will be adopted, utilised and developed both within and beyond the region,” she said.
“With the region already identified by startup.co.uk as the best place to start a business, today marks a great opportunity for the region to come together and commit to making it the best place to scale a business too.”
Smith & Williamson partner Peter Ball added: “The event, brought together by Briony at Engine Shed, showed just how strong and collaborative the business ecosystem is here in Bristol for fast-growing businesses and was an opportunity to showcase what we do in Bristol on a national and international field.
“We’re looking forward to taking what we learn to help support these local success stories to grow and make the most of their potential.”
The Bristol Angel Hub will offer members access to the Engine Shed Business Lounge, training and development opportunities for new and experienced angel investors, and opportunities to attend pitch presentations.
The hub will be complemented by a new initiative from Engine Shed – the Quarterly Investment Briefing. This is a three-monthly event and newsletter designed to invigorate the investment ecosystem locally, nationally, and internationally.
The UKBAA expects to open three more angel hubs in Birmingham, Cambridge and Manchester. They will be open to angel investors, new and would-be angels, investment funds, cowdfunding and online investment platforms, private equity, and non-investment professionals that bring demonstrable value.
The Scale-Up Pow Wow also heard from ScaleUp Institute CEO Irene Graham, who spoke about the national picture, and – via video – global entrepreneurial ecosystem expert Prof Dan Isenberg, who gave an international dimension to the subject.
