Funding Businesses for Growth

The Catalyst team was very pleased to welcome back the founders of three outstanding alumni companies to lead the hotly anticipated session, How to Raise Finance.

Adam Kingdon, Utonomy founder and Strategic Relationship Director, Jim Wicks, YouSeq founder and Executive Chair, and Nick Guo, BirthGlide’s founder and CEO, formed a panel alongside entrepreneur and business coach, Gary Smith, to offer firsthand insight into how they approached funding the transition from business formation to high growth.  

Adam, Jim, Nick and Gary were candid about their experiences and learnings. Each took a different route, yet all have been highly successful to date in securing the necessary financial support to achieve critical strategic milestones. Between them, they have raised many millions of pounds through venture capital investment, floating on the stock exchange, bootstrapping, grant funding and working creatively and collaboratively with customers, suppliers and partners.

Understanding how to attract investment is a key objective for many of the early stage businesses that participate in the Catalyst programme. What they learnt from this session was that there’s no one single formula for success.

As Jim Wicks summarised, “Financing your business for growth will not be as neat and tidy as you might anticipate. Expect it to be messy, expect it to be creative. If you’re going to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to hustle a little to find a way that works in your unique situation.”  

Catalyst is the South’s leading business accelerator for early stage science and technology businesses. An intensive, 18-week business accelerator programme for early-stage innovation-led companies, Catalyst delivers world-class mentoring, strategic guidance, practical workshops and the connections that will help turn your ideas into a scalable business.

To benefit from this proven business support package, you must apply here before 5pm Friday 2 January to be considered for the cohort commencing in Spring 2026. Pitch days will be held in mid-January 2026 to give shortlisted companies the opportunity to explain their business proposition in more detail.

Southampton Science Park is grateful to Catalyst programme partners: Health Innovation Wessex, the National Oceanography Centre and the University of Southampton’s School of Healthcare Enterprise and Innovation, and to Test Valley Borough Council which provides funding via the UK Government Shared Prosperity Fund.