“Science 2 Start-up”: The Winner

After 5 weeks of hard work, our start-ups pitched at this year’s final “Science 2 Start-up workshop”.

Ranging from gait-monitoring for Alzheimer’s disease to the use of stem cells to treat tooth maladies, our start-ups really demonstrated what they had learned during S2S 2019. However, there could only be one winner of our £200 prize and that was up to our judges, Rosie Thomas, Gerard Gregg-Smith and Dr. Renos Savva, to decide.

Odouratio was crowned our S2S 2019 champion. Felix, a biochemistry undergraduate student from Imperial and Odouratio’s founder, concisely pitched a probiotic deodorant as an alternative to metal-containing deodorants. Discussing the current market, the unmet need, the competition and the enterprise’s financial trajectories, Odouratio provided a compelling pitch and detailed answers to the judge’s questions.

This year’s S2S participants found each of the themes discussed at our workshops engaging and useful for the development of their start-up. Innovation Forum UCL sincerely thank our sector specialists for giving up their time to deliver the sessions, our judges, participants and UCL Innovation and Enterprise. We look forward to following the bright futures of the S2S 2019 cohort.

Article written by Bethan Davies.

“Science 2 Start-up”: Pitching

Our penultimate Science 2 Start-up workshop discussed business development and marketing with the help of Nicholas Duggan. The interactive session saw our start-ups consider how they could raise awareness of their business and how that marketing strategy could get customers access to their product to convert it to a sale.

Since the basics of commercialising an idea have now been covered, our start-ups will pitch their business idea and plan to a panel of judges for a chance to win £200. Their flash pitches will be <5 minutes long and will address the market need, competition and the subsequent steps that the funding will assist with. Our start-ups will be judged by:

Rosie Thomas

Rosie works at Oxford Sciences Innovation, which supports and builds world-changing companies from across Oxford’s science and technology departments. She is passionate about helping businesses grow and learn to tell their stories in the most compelling ways. She has an MSc in Sociology and was previously an election campaign organiser and parliamentary researcher.

Gerard Gregg-Smith

Gerard Gregg-Smith is the Managing Director of GGS Associates, and a specialist in life sciences and financial services. With 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, and 15 years as an investment banker advising healthcare and life sciences companies, he has extensive knowledge of strategic issues and business models.

Dr. Renos Savva

Renos Savva is a research team leader in recombinant molecular and synthetic biology, and senior lecturer at Birkbeck. He is also the CDH (combinatorial domain hunting) technology originator and co-founder of Domainex. Renos helps shape new cohorts of science entrepreneurs as the programme director of MSc Bio-Business at Birkbeck University.

What is S2S?

Innovation Forum UCL and UCL Innovation & Enterprise’s S2S is a “Science to Start-up” workshop series and a fundamental programme for those interested in how to establish a start-up in today’s fast-paced and competitive market. These interactive workshops are led by sector specialists and shall introduce concepts essential for understanding and considering when developing your start-up.

From the first workshop, you’ll develop your idea and refine it with the new information that you will have gleaned at each workshop. At the final session, you will pitch your idea (whether it’s hypothetical or a true start-up) to our judges for a chance to win a £200 prize. You can also attend this series for your own education/ knowledge with no expectation that you need form your own real/ hypothetical start-up.

What will be covered during S2S 2019?

This year’s workshop series will run over 5 consecutive weeks (Tuesday 8^th October to 5^th November 2019) and will cover: idea generation, business model, intellectual property, finance, marketing and business development and pitching.

Each workshop is split into an interactive lecture by our sector specialists followed by Q&A and networking to enhance your own knowledge and develop your evolving start-up. So, come along and hear from the very best about start-up creation and network over food and drinks. It’s all on us!

How do I sign up?

Our first session started last week, but we welcome those interested in innovation and enterprise. Any start-ups formed from this week onwards will, unfortunately, be ineligible for the £200 cash prize at the final pitching session. For more information, timetable and registration, click on our Eventbrite. Feel free to contact Innovation Forum UCL with any queries on [email protected]

See you on Tuesday 5^th November, 18:00 at 537, IOE UCL.

Article written by Bethan Davies.

Science 2 Start-up: Business development and Marketing

Last week, our Science 2 Start-up workshop covered intellectual property (IP) and finance.

Joseph Lenthall discussed the various types of protection available to your business e.g. patents, trademarks, trade secrets and copyrights. Guarding the creations of your start-up is essential to the competitive survival of your enterprise and should not be overlooked!

Dominic O’Regan discussed the logistics of raising finance to support your start-up. Potential routes of funding include accelerators/ incubators, grants, angel investors and venture capitalists but the main advice that Dominic gave was to plan in advance and start early conversations with investors to secure funding when your start-up would need it most.

Now that our start-ups have developed their business idea, model and IP and finance strategies, we will cover business development and marketing with the help of Nicholas Duggan.

Nicholas is an innovation and marketing professional with extensive experience across the medical technology, consumer products, financial services, and ICT sectors. He is a Partner at Viadynamics, a leading innovation and venturing agency, where he champions business model innovation for corporate clients, supports university clients in building capability for Knowledge Exchange and leads new venturing activities.

Nicholas is also a founder and former CEO of Cellesce, a start-up company that aims to transform drug discovery and personalised medicine in the fight against cancer. As CEO, he led the company through successful technology development, IP protection, building out the team, raising seed funding and two subsequent equity raising rounds, to the winning of first customers. Nicholas has also worked to build innovation capability and performance across the humanitarian sector, with UNICEF and the Humanitarian Innovation Fund.

Prior to joining Viadynamics, Nicholas was a strategy consultant at PIMS and a business strategist in the consumer products and electronics industries. He has a business studies degree and a master’s degree in business strategy, both from University College Dublin.

What is S2S?

What will be covered during S2S 2019?

How do I sign up?

See you on Tuesday 29^th October, 18:00 at W3.07, IOE UCL.

Article written by Bethan Davies.

“Science 2 Start-up”: Intellectual Property and Finance

Building upon our initial ideation workshop, Nicholas Duggan, a partner at Viadynamics, spoke about how to select an appropriate business model at this week’s Science to Start-up (S2S) workshop.

Consideration of numerous processes and questions are required before settling on an adequate business model for your start-up: to reach your desired customers, do you have the appropriate routes to market? What tools, knowledge and skills do you need to scale your idea? Where and how do you provide value, at what cost and price point? By considering questions like these, you are then able to select which options you have as a business model e.g. subscription service, selling equipment etc.

By understanding a currently unmet need and the barriers to the solution, our start-ups should now have a business model that they would like to build upon. The next step is to know how to protect their intellectual property and to acquire finance to support the progression of their business. Luckily, we have Joseph Lenthall and Dominic O’Regan on hand to enlighten us.

Dr. Joe Lenthall is a Partner and patent attorney in the Chemistry and Life Sciences team at Haseltine Lake Kempner, a specialist IP firm. He specialises in obtaining and managing patent portfolios in the healthcare and chemical industries. He has developed substantial technical and professional experience in the fields of new pharmaceutical entities (including protein kinase inhibitors, ADCs and PROTACs) for a variety of therapeutic areas, radiopharmaceuticals, new pharmaceutical formulations (including oral protein formulations), dentistry, biocompatible materials, assay devices and consumer product formulations.

Joe particularly enjoys working with start-up companies where IP can be a highly valuable company asset. He has worked with companies from start-up to acquisition, working collaboratively with those companies to ensure their IP strategy is always aligned with the overall company strategy. Joe is also dedicated to sharing his knowledge and experience with the entrepreneurial community by mentoring teams in business plan competitions such as the Imagine IF accelerator and TERMIS business plan competition. Joe also regularly guest lectures at UK universities on the role of IP in the commercialisation of research.

Dominic O’Regan, through his company New Mosaic Ltd, works to help seed stage companies in the UK and Europe obtain investment and to commercialise towards exit or market. This work is typically very collaborative, with close working relationships with the companies and others in his network to ensure the pitch, data room and more importantly, the thinking behind them, are ready for investment and the market. He also makes personal angel investments in UK companies.

Dominic has 25 years’ experience working with pharmaceutical, biotech, scientific instrument and other life science business. He has held positions in marketing, business insights, product and project development, and process streamlining, has worked with over 15 pharmaceutical and biotech companies of all sizes, and has experience in over 20 secondary care therapy areas.

What is S2S?

Innovation Forum UCL and UCL Innovation & Enterprise’s S2S is a free “Science to Start-up” workshop series and a fundamental programme for those interested in how to establish a start-up in today’s fast-paced and competitive market. These interactive workshops are led by sector specialists and shall introduce concepts essential for understanding and considering when developing your start-up.

What will be covered during S2S 2019?

How do I sign up?

See you on Tuesday 22^nd October, 18:00 at W3.07, IOE UCL.

Article written by Bethan Davies.

“Science 2 Start-up”: Business Model

Our first workshop of the Science to Start-up (S2S) 2019 series kicked off on Tuesday.

Dominic Falcão, founding director of Deep Science Ventures, spoke about the process of problem-orientated ideation: determining which problem your start-up could solve, pinpointing your solution and reflecting on its viability. Our attendees then put what they’d learned into practice by forming teams and creating their own problem-orientated start-up.

Now that our start-ups have come up with their ideas, how can they create a business out of it? This week’s S2S workshop will cover business model theory and shall be hosted by Nicholas Duggan.

What is S2S?

What will be covered during S2S 2019?

How do I sign up?

See you on Tuesday 15^th October, 18:00 at W3.07, IOE UCL.

Article written by Bethan Davies.

“Science 2 Start-up” 2019 launch

Following on from the success of last year’s Science 2 Start-up (S2S) series, Innovation Forum UCL and UCL Innovation & Enterprise are delighted to announce its return this Autumn. This article will detail more about this free 5-week workshop series & information on how to join in on the fun.

What is S2S?

S2S is a free “Science to Start-up” workshop series and a fundamental programme for those interested in how to establish a start-up in today’s fast-paced and competitive market. These interactive workshops are led by sector specialists and shall introduce concepts essential for understanding and considering when developing your start-up.

What will be covered during S2S 2019?

I don’t have an idea or a team, does that mean I can’t come along to S2S?

No problem! You can work individually or form a team at the first workshop. There is no prerequisite for a business idea or any prior experience. It is also fine to come along to S2S to learn more about innovation and entrepreneurship without forming your own hypothetical/ real start-up. S2S is designed for people with limited experience that would like to develop their entrepreneurial skills.

What does the first session cover?

How do you know which problem your start-up could solve? How do you know whether you have a good idea? How do you even come up with a good idea in the first place?! The first step to developing your start-up is having a solid idea so it makes sense to start our workshop series here.

Dominic Falcão, founding director of Deep Science Ventures, will host our first session on Tuesday 8^th October 6-9pm at W3.07 in UCL’s IOE. Dominic and his team at DSV bring together teams of scientists to build new companies that redefine industries. Working very closely with start-ups from the conception and ideation stage, Dominic is the best man to share his experiences and outlook on what makes a good basis to a start-up.

Do I have to attend all of the workshops?

No, attend as many sessions as you want. However, only teams registered at the first workshop can compete for the £200 prize.

How do I sign up?

For more information, timetable and free registration, click on our Eventbrite. Feel free to contact Innovation Forum UCL with any queries on [email protected].

See you for our first session on Tuesday 8^th October, 18:00 at W3.07, IOE UCL.

Introducing London’s IMAGINE IF! TOP10 Healthcare and TOP5 Cleantech Startups

This year, the London branch of Innovation Forum will run both a Healthcare and Cleantech stream for the IMAGINE IF! competition.

Having received free mentoring and advice by industry experts from leading corporations including Johnson & Johnson and Marks & Clerk, as well as access to the international Innovation Forum network, these startups will pitch at the Regional Finals on the 19th February 2019.

Regional Healthcare winners secure their participation at our annual IMAGINE IF! Global Final conference in Cambridge on June 27th 2019. Here, each healthcare startup will pitch in front of international industry professionals, stakeholders and investors. The winners will be awarded with a non-dilutive cash prize, professional support for rapid development of their company and 6-months of free workspace.

The Innovation Forum team thanks all the teams that participated in the competition.

Here are our TOP10 Healthcare startups of IMAGINE IF! London 2018-2019:

Breastfeeding plays an important role in shaping gut bacterial communities in infants to promote healthy development, but not all women are able to solely breastfeed. BoobyBiome aim to help breastfeeding mothers by developing a probiotic supplement for formula milk which contains all the beneficial bacteria typical of breast milk. The enthusiastic team also envisions developing a personalised microbiome service for mothers.

CC Bio is tackling a common female infection, bacterial vaginosis (BV), with a smart localised solution. Tampon-based, easy to use and specific to the causative bacterium, their product shows promise for the treatment of a highly prevalent disease that is rarely discussed worldwide. CC Bio aims to decrease recurrent infections and preserve the genital microbiota during treatment.

Celltrinsics is a software tool imaging cells in complex 3D environments and analysing their behaviour in real-time. Also being able to integrate this data with genomics and other biological datasets, the goal is to analyse the origin of cellular behaviour to predict cells fate. The dynamic imaging modes provided by Celltrinsics reduces cost and time associated with unsuccessful cell culture experiments whilst also providing sophisticated, intuitive visualisation of the data. Celltrinsics provides a stepping stone in analytics for cell therapies and assays for drug discoveries.

DiBeat is a blockchain-based platform that aims to connect researchers with diabetic patients to accelerate the development of diabetes treatments. Researchers will be able to test medically- and healthcare professional-validated ideas on diabetic patients. The DiBeat app will allow patients to directly contribute to finding a cure for diabetes.

GEKKCO

Patients with advanced/ end-stage cancer can undergo photodynamic therapy (PDT) to bypass therapeutic resistance mechanisms of cancer cells. Geccko have developed a nanodevice that addresses the limitations of PDT (e.g. lightsource requirements) whilst having real-time targeted, patient-specific nanomedicine such as desired drug loads and the ability to repurpose current drugs. This nanodevice is constructed from a combination of non-toxic degradable precursors that has the potential to be used at the bedside.

Jelly Drops tackles the common problem of dehydration in those who suffers from dementia. Dehydration decreases patient quality of life and, in the worst cases, can lead to hospitalisation due life-threatening complications. Jelly Drops are bright and tasty water-containing treats, which easily grasp the attention of people with dementia, helping them keep hydrated.

Currently, biopharmaceutical industries use costly chemical methods to manufacture microspheres that have a low throughput and requires a large operating space. MicroSpray Technologies brings to market multiplexed atomisation devices that improves particle production efficiency by 1600% in a safer, sustainable and economical process and dramatically reduced size complexity. This electrospray platform technology is considered the “holy grail” of particle manufacture in aerosol generation methods and can now provide the sufficient production of polymeric particles for pharmaceutical drug delivery.

MyPainScore addresses the need for a standardised method of assessing pain and the delivery of a personalised pain management plan. Through the development of a novel, AI-driven, feedback-based solution, MyPainScore matches pain management resources to the needs of individuals suffering from chronic pain. This prognostic tool has been developed by a multidisciplinary team of academics, GPs and patients.

With a combination of robotics, AI and machine vision, Neurotech aim to improve the functionality of prosthetic arms through the development of a situationally-aware prosthetic arm. Effectively building its own picture of the world, the prosthetic arm would ameliorate a person’s interaction with objects (e.g. handles and carryable objects); thus, improving their quality of life. Neurotech has been developed by Dr. Jonah Dearlove, a practising medic, and Luke Speller, a mathematician and theoretical physicist.

Vitrue Health allows clinicians to evaluate patients’ functional health in a more sensitive and accurate way. A computer vision based system autonomously measures the motor function metrics of patients. The reports outputted by Vitrue Health’s system will help clinicians and physiotherapists to treat patients in a more efficient way thus reducing healthcare costs.

And now for the TOP5 Cleantech startups selected by the Innovation Forum evaluation committee to enter London’s IMAGINE IF! Accelerator Program.

The winning Cleantech startup will win a non-dilutive cash prize to continue their startup adventure. Here are our TOP5 Cleantech startups of IMAGINE IF! London 2018-2019:

BLUE GREEN GOLD BIOTECH

Blue Green Gold Biotech aim to build small scale, automated photobioreactors capable of growing microalgae. Their reactor design enables the rapid and accurate testing of algae strains, temperature, CO2, O2, growth rate and colour of culture. Factors including lighting, air flow rate, gas composition and temperature will be remotely controllable. Blue Green Gold Biotech wish to offer an algae strain testing service for the biotechnology industry and help companies pick optimal algae for applications including: reduced CO2 output from power plants, reduced organic waste runoff and animal feed production.

ECOACT TANZANIA have developed a chemical free plastic extrusion technology ‘Waxy II technology’ that recycles plastic waste into a range of highly durable materials, including plastic timbers for construction and furniture making. Using beeswax, ECOACT’s technology helps plastic materials of various polymers reach their melting point rapidly whilst maintaining their stability and strength. The process has a low energy consumption and, therefore, a low production cost. ECOACT have already gained recognition for their work in the African entrepreneurial community and are pioneering plastic recycling in Africa.

AC BIODE

AC Biode have developed an innovative technology that splits water into its constituents, hydrogen and oxygen, using half the amount of electricity required for traditional electrolysis methods. Their technology, ultra-fast speed laser pulses, creates an ‘electron avalanche effect’ enabling many electrons to split water molecules efficiently. They aim to become leaders in the emerging Hydrogen (H2) industry and to create H2 stations that are simple, easy to use and flexible in location using excess power from renewables. With the rise of hydrogen fuel cell cars, H24E Innova are pioneers in a promising area that is still in its infancy.

MINTX

MintX Bio develop enzymes that will allow plastics to be recycled infinite number of times. Current plastic recycling methods require high energy consumption and lead to lower product quality. Additionally, complex materials made out of different types of polymers cannot currently be recycled. By using advanced lab-based techniques to mimic natural processes, MintX Bio are working to improve performance and combine capabilities of different enzymes to enable efficient degradation of various plastic polymers into their respective monomers at an industrial scale.

SETA’s main aim is to revolutionise the biomaterial industry with a high-valued artificial spider silk. Utilising synthetic biology, recombinant functionalised spider silk fibres are produced for biomedical applications (e.g. 3D cell scaffolds for tissue engineering and drug delivery systems) at an industrial scale. SETA aim to become a number one company whose technology produces the highest-quality spider silk, a product that can be later used by biotechnology companies, hospitals, or research institutions around the world.

The judges for the TOP10 Healthcare finals are:

Dr. Gill Holdsworth

Gill is the Senior Group Leader of Musculoskeletal Research within UCB Pharma Ltd.’s NewMeds department. Having worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 26 years, Gill has vast expertise in the drug discovery and biotechnology sector and is keen to hear more about the grass root science in London.

Prof. Gino Martini

Prof Gino Martini is a pharmacist and holds a PhD in Drug Delivery from the University of Manchester. He has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry sector where he worked for Catalent, GSK, Roche and Shire. He is also Honorary Professor of Pharmaceutical Innovation at King’s College London and at University of Bradford.

Dominic O’Regan

Dominic has more that 25 years of marketing and project development experience within the life sciences and pharmaceutical industry. He is currently the Director of New Mosiac helping to commercialise diagnostic, medtech and life science businesses whilst also operating as an angel investor.

Letizia Goretti

Letizia is the Director for Portfolio Management and Business Operations, at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, London. She brings a broad and extensive background across quality, CMC disciplines, supply chain launch management, alliance management, business development and commercial life cycle management. Letizia has track record of creating effective governances and collaborative environments, integrating silos and a passion for developing and nurturing alliances that allow parties to complement their capabilities and achieve higher goals.

And the judges for the TOP5 Cleantech finals are:

Dr. Thomas Prock

Thomas advises clients in the high tech field, in particular, in the electronics sector on internet-related subject matter and computer-implemented inventions. Thomas is moreover active in protecting inventions in the Cleantech and medical device field.
He has worked on patent applications relating to non-volatile semiconductor storage devices, data processing and exchange, mobile telecommunications, smart grid related inventions, waste reduction and medical imaging, Thomas graduated with a Diploma in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Applied Science in Ulm (Germany) and went on to obtain his PhD from the Institute of Cancer Research.

Peter Bachmann

Peter is a director at Scottish Equity Partners and has a specialist expertise in infrastructure projects, leading the way for small community-based onshore wind turbines across the UK. He has a background of almost 20 years in investment in clean technology and energy infrastructure projects and also has background in corporate law and finance.

Henrik Hagemann

Henrik Hagemann is the CEO and co-founder of CustoMem Ltd. (2015), focusing on engineered biomaterials that target chemicals in water. He is an MIT Tech Review 35 Innovators Under 35 Europe, completed a Royal Academy of Engineering 1851 Enterprise Fellowship. He is an active part of the deep tech community, having co-founded a synthetic biology society for students, SynBIC, after taking part in iGEM. His published research includes the intersection of synthetic biology with biomaterials (Florea, Hagemann et al., PNAS 2016).

To attend and watch these exciting startup pitch, tickets are available at:

IMAGINE IF! London Regional Finals

Select your branch

Author: UCL Innovation Forum