Tech entrepreneur, Peter Hopton, the founder of Iceotope, is launching a new South Yorkshire start-up and scale-up venture.
Venture.Community is being piloted in the county, which he describes as the UK’s “secret startup capital.”
Launched as part of UK Tech Week in Sheffield, its aim is to advance the development of 100s of tech companies in South Yorkshire secure £100m in venture funding over the next 5 years.
Hopton, who set up data centre cooling company Iceotope and VeryPC and previously raised more than £58m in venture funding and believes this is a new approach to support tech founders.
Instead of a traditional accelerator “that limits both the duration of support and the number of participants supported,” Venture.Community will provide resources and a rolling program of education and events open to any founder who wants to access them.
Then, startups with the most potential will receive mentoring from experienced founders in the community and support achieving specific outcomes, such as funding.
“This is a new approach to tech acceleration that is scalable, sustainable and open to all ventures and venturers. Sheffield and South Yorkshire is the UK’s secret startup capital and probably the most collaborative tech ecosystem on the planet. This is the perfect place to pilot Venture.Community,” said Hopton, the founder and Convenor-in-Chief of Venture.Community.
“Tech founders frequently swim in a sea of sharks, so we are providing safe harbour, an inclusive community where founders support founders and entrepreneurs can connect with trusted experts that provide genuine, meaningful support.”
The network’s concept has been developed over the last 2 years through mentorships focused on supporting strategy, fundraising and executive team building with 5 startups, including Productive Machines, BOW and TUBR, which raised more than £5m in funding between them in the period.
Hopton hopes the community will become self-sustaining through supporters, partners, sponsorships and success fees.
