StartUp Britain’s summer bus tour will begin in the city, which has been identified as one of 14 entrepreneurial hotspots.

Experts from the University of Bristol’s SETsquared Business Acceleration will be on hand to offer business mentoring support and coaching as part of the initiative, which will be stationed at The Paintworks, Bath Road, on Monday, 22 August between 9am and 11.30am.

The aim is to celebrate, inspire and accelerate new and existing small businesses by providing expert advice and mentoring.

StartUp Britain was launched by the private sector in response to the Government’s call for an ‘enterprise-led’ recovery from the financial crises and has been backed by David Cameron.

SETsquared will be one of the selected business leaders, experts and entrepreneurs offering business advice, speed mentoring and speed networking aboard the bus.

Nick Sturge, Centre Director of SETsquared at Bristol University, said: “It’s great that this tour kicks off in Bristol, one of the leading locations for technology companies in the UK.  We are delighted to be offering expert mentoring support to Bristol’s up and coming talent.”

SETsquared is the enterprise collaboration between five universities - Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. It supports new businesses, both university spin-outs and from the wider community, through its business incubation and acceleration centres.

At the Bristol centre alone, SETsquared has helped its members raise investment funds of over £53million in the last four years.

Emma Jones, Co-founder and Interim Chief Executive of StartUp Britain, said: “We will be meeting with students and helping them turn ideas into ventures and we'll be visiting employees moving from employment into self-employment. I look forward to welcoming hundreds of start-ups and small businesses on board."