Problem:

Women deserve a better way of getting professionally fitted for bras. The lack of care and proper training within the bra industry means that bra-sizing confusion is a never-ending debate. Inefficient practices result in 80% of women wearing bras that don’t fit properly and billions of pounds lost every year in size- and fit-related exchanges and returns.

Solution:

Combining state-of-the-art computer vision with data from real-life women (our co-creators), Brarista is bringing professional bra-fitting to bra-wearers’ homes.  Its technology makes it possible for clients to find their best fit across product lines simply by using their phone camera.

Researching this technology to ensure its usefulness and accuracy is technically complex. Brarista is working hard to continue building, testing, and improving the current prototype before conducting technical trials.

The ongoing pandemic gave Brarista an opportunity to collaborate with Boost Innovations Ltd to apply its technology to fit breast prostheses online for breast cancer survivors (classified by the NHS as a higher-risk group). Research shows that getting bra-fitted using a tape-measure results in a 70% inaccuracy rate, but this is still the most popular method used by high street bra-fitters and online bra-fitting guides. Brarista hopes that its technology will improve the accuracy by at least 40% to be on par with professional bra-fitting by eyesight.

Traction:

2018 - Won the Most Innovative Idea at the UCL Innovation and Enterprise Launch Programme

2019 - Team formation and acquired trial interests from the industry

2019 - Selected as a startup to be mentored by DeFine Network EU (a European Commission-funded FashionTech Community).

2019 - Selected as one of seven startups to join Women in AI & Data in Israel with InnovateUK

2019 - Highly Commended Award at the Academy’s Enterprise Hub Launchpad Competition Final

2020 - Crowdfunded successfully and matchfunded with NatWest Back Her Business

2020 - Acquired a new research client to apply its technology to fit breast prosthesis online

To find out more abut Brarista visit https://www.brarista.co/

Problem:

The likelihood of patient recovery decreases with delayed ophthalmic disease detection.

Solution:

Aston Vision Science’s unique, patent pending illumination system allows for low cost, all-in-one ocular diagnostics that provide fast results. Because the system is portable, it can reach patients that are currently left behind, including everyone from older people in the UK with mobility issues through to remote communities is developing nations. Aston Vision Science will have its first commercial unit assembled and ready to demonstrate in mid-2021.

Due to the low cost, high accuracy and portable nature of its instrument, it will be valuable around the world. The largest ophthalmic instrument markets were North America ($831.8 million) and Europe ($526.7 million), however a fast growing market is emerging in the Asia-Pacific region ($482.8 million).

In 2016, China had the highest global rate of dry eye syndrome with 200 million cases and in some studies, up to 21% of adults suffering. In China, 80% of its blind population lives in rural areas, yet 75% of their 28,000 eye doctors work in cities. Patients must travel far before they are able to get the care they need, with similar patterns repeated around the world. Aston Vision Science's goal is to provide quality eye care, everywhere.

 Traction:

April 2018 - Patent application filed

May 2018 - Icure Placement

July 2018 - Aston Vision Sciences incorporated

June 2019 - MICRA funding awarded

July 2019 - Innovate UK Smart awarded

Jan 2020 - Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship Awardee

2020 - Seed funding

July 2020 - Innovate UK COVID-19 Continuity Grant awarded

August 2020 -  three full-time and two part-time employees

Problem:

If disease evolution could be predicted, treatment cycles could be altered to improve care for patients.

Solution:

WarnerPatch is a medical device that predicts disease evolution to enable clinicians to give preventive care. Particularly focusing on peripheral vascular diseases (PVD), which includes diabetic foot and wound care, WarnerPatch reduces the treatment cycle by improving patient management for healthcare providers.

WarnerPatch comes as a non-invasive, wearable wireless (using 2G network) sensor that continuously measures disease symptoms. Using AI, prediction on future disease evolution is given, with notifications if symptoms get worse. Clinicians can access the results in real-time and be notified when a patient becomes high risk.

WarnerPatch aims to help clinicians augment their understanding of disease progression, to improve patient outlook and outcomes, and reduce related care cost.

In the UK, there are about 5,000 unnecessary amputations carried out annually on PVD patients due to poor patient management and long treatment cycles. 50% of these patients die within two years. It costs the NHS £1.4 billion a year to treat PVD patients and indirectly, a further £1 million per amputee. WarnerPatch aims to reduce these numbers to zero.

Problem:

Manufacturing shop floors are complex and variable environments that make producing components on time, on cost and at the right quality a daily battle. Businesses often lack visibility into shop floor processes, leading many to see high-value manufacturing as somewhat of a dark art.

Solution:

In the high-value manufacturing sector, the average utilisation of a machine is less than 30%. Despite costing hundreds of thousands of pounds, these machines spend over two thirds of their lifetime in an idle state.

In Yorkshire there is a saying “If it ain’t cutting metal, it ain’t making money” and a lot of manufacturers are losing out due to poor machine performance. This decreases their return on investment, creates higher production costs and ultimately leads to less successful manufacturing in the UK. Even just a 10% increase in productivity would be revolutionary and allow manufacturers to make more with the resources they already have – restoring manufacturing back to its place at the heart of the economy in the UK and beyond.

ForJaw has worked with two tech companies in its hometown of Sheffield to create its technology: The Curve, who helped increase the capabilities of its data analysis platform and web application; and Razor, Microsoft experts who created a secure, scalable and flexible pipeline for extracting data from machines on the shop floor and sending it up to FourJaw’s cloud platform.

FourJaw’s roots are in the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), where the team met and the initial technologies were developed. Using the engineering pedigree available at the AMRC, FourJaw has built a deep understanding of manufacturing operations.

“Quite simply, FourJaw would not be where it is today without the Enterprise Fellowship. The blend of mentoring, training, coaching and funding has accelerated our business growth and helped us navigate the difficult first phase of our business. The doors opened by the Enterprise Fellowship to contacts and connections have also been a key resource we’ve benefitted from.”

 Traction:

August 2020 – FourJaw kicked off a case study with Microsoft to demonstrate Azure (the FourJaw cloud platform of choice) in manufacturing

September 2020 – FourJaw featured on the front pages of MTDCNC magazine

Problem:

There are 70 million people who require prosthetic limbs around the world. Sadly, limb loss is up to 100 times more common in low-resource regions of the world. Current prostheses are rigid, uncomfortable, over-engineered and prohibitively expensive – up to tens of £1000s per device. Because of this, 90% of people with limb differences have no access to prostheses at all. 

Solution:

Ben Lakey is the Co-Founder of Mitt Wearables. Mitt has developed easy-to-use, comfortable prosthetic limbs that are drastically more affordable than any other solutions.

 Instead of having rigid sockets that clinicians must specially fit to users, Mitt’s prosthetic limbs have an adjustable interface that users can fit themselves, which makes them light, breathable and much more comfortable. They are developing a growing range of task-specific tools that clip in and out of the prosthesis – for holding a pen, a kitchen knife, a table tennis bat or anything else the user needs.

 Ben’s interest in prosthetics stemmed from a personal experience, after his sister had a traumatic foot injury seven years ago that eventually led to a below-knee amputation. He saw first-hand the difficulties she experienced with rehabilitation and trying to get prosthetics fitted correctly. 

 With an affordable price point, and a device that can be fitted by users themselves without medical intervention, Mitt can provide prosthetics direct to the users and communities that need them, no matter how isolated from medical infrastructure. Mitt aims to remove barriers and empower individuals to take control over their own disability, creating opportunities for people around the world by giving them the power over their own limbs. 

Traction

• 2018 - Imperial College Venture Catalyst Challenge People’s Choice Award
• 2018 - London and Partners Business Growth Programme
• 2019 - Raised pre-seed Angel investment
• 2019 - Royal Academy of Engineering Launchpad Competition People’s Choice Award
• 2019 - Ben Lakey was awarded an Enterprise Fellowship (1851 Royal Commission)
• 2019 - Product received CE Marking as a Class 1 Medical Device
• 2019 - Innovate UK Global Challenges Research Fund Grant
• 2020 - London Business Awards Disruptor of the Year Award

Find out more about Mitt Wearables at https://www.wearmitt.com/

The problem

The flexible and printed electronics markets are working towards having speedy, defect-free manufacturing processes. To achieve this, they need new inspection systems that allow live testing and enable real-time quality assurance without stopping production.

The solution

Dr Muhamedsalih has helped create a multi-wavelength polarising interferometer (MPI) for in-line surface metrology. It operates at the micro/nano-scale level and can be used for real time inspections of moving surfaces. The interferometer is combined with a software method to handle larger amount of data for surface analysis without direct interaction from the operator.

The system detects and characterises defects. This means that manufacturers will be able to understand what causes faults and take measures to correct them. Importantly, the technology is sufficiently robust to be used on the shop floor.

Hussam is now working to validate the MPI’s performance with world-leading manufacturers and research centres. His innovation is being tested by the UK Catapult National Centre for Printable Electronics – Centre for Process Innovation. His proof of concept system should reach Technology Readiness Level 9 before the end of 2021 and be ready to launch and available to buy soon after.

Analysts have forecast that the global metrology market will grow to over $600 million by 2023 in the traditional manufacturing market. Hussam’s technology also fits into the printed and flexible electronics markets, which are predicted to grow to $77 billion by 2023.

For Dr Muhamedsalih, the Enterprise Fellowship experience has: “allowed me to structure my business model and test it out by intensive direct interaction with industry and potential clients.”

Traction

• 2014 International winner in the Manufacturing Technology category of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s annual Innovation Awards
• 2016  Becomes a Fellow of the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers
• 2019  Dr Hussam Muhamedsalih was awarded an Enterprise Fellowship
• 2020 MPI installed at the UK Catapult National Centre for Printable Electronics – Centre for Process Innovation.

Duvas Technologies has developed the DV3000, air quality monitoring technology that can analyse  urban pollution by measuring the concentration of gas types to within parts-per-billion concentration. Using ultraviolet spectroscopy it can detect and monitor 14 hazardous gases simultaneously. Using patented technology, the DV3000 unit produces real-time atmospheric measurements of toxic gases including benzene, toluene, ammonia and formaldehyde.

Duvas works with environmental protection agencies around the world to monitor air pollution. The DV3000 is able to measure levels of urban pollution and track longer-term changes and trends.

Dr Phillipa Smith is the CTO at Duvas Technologies, leading the science team and overseeing its technical and manufacturing operations. Phillipa has been an SME Leader since 2018 and credits the programme with boosting her managerial abilities. She says: “The workshops, coaching and mentoring aspects have improved my confidence in my capabilities and provided additional tools to maximise my input to the business. The networking side of the business has provided a large range of peers from a variety of backgrounds and careers. I also chair the SME leaders general roundtable to facilitate peer support and discussion across different cohorts.”

Duvas Technologies has recently secured additional funding that will enable it to expand its sales reach and research and development. The company’s sensing and monitoring systems for air quality will be useful for the oil and gas sector and could have a legislative role to play in tracking air pollution worldwide.

Oxford Vision and Sensor Technology (OVST) is a University of Oxford spin-out that specialises in the design of 2D and 3D machine vision systems. These are transforming industrial manufacturing processes by allowing robots to recognise and identify objects for automatic operation.

OVST works closely with the automotive industry where high precision is essential at every stage of assembly. Its vision systems combine sophisticated software with innovative sensing technologies for robot guidance. The systems reduce costs and improve quality control by ensuring accurate results are consistently achieved in production.

The company has a strong customer base in the UK and Europe. Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin, Ford, Honda, Ferrari and Maserati are among its customers in the automotive industry. Millions of vehicles have already been glazed by robots guided by the company’s core technology.

Fhon Supmak leads OVST’s commercial and technical strategy. Using training and support through the SME Leaders Programme, Fhon aims to build financial and entrepreneurial skills to guide OVST’s expansion into new international markets. This includes developing innovative products so that OVST remains competitive as it develops work through collaboration with subsidies in China and Thailand.

The problem

Advances in robotics are creating new opportunities for automating processes. However, robots lack the dexterity and sensing abilities of humans, making it a challenge for robots to complete many tasks that humans can do.

The solution

Wootzano Ltd is an electronics company with a patent-pending process for developing an electronic skin for robots. Known as Wootzkin, the technology enables robots to sense and feel as humans would, allowing robots to easily complete more dextrous jobs.

Wootskin can bend, stretch and twist without damaging its sensor for measuring force, pressure, temperature and humidity. It can be manufactured using standard techniques such as photolithography, stencil film or screen printing to enable micro or nanofabrication on soft materials.

There is a significant market for robotic manipulators that can perform dextrous jobs in the agri-robotics industry. Here, robots can transform agricultural capacity in areas such as picking and sorting fruit and vegetables. The agri-robotics market is currently worth around £1.6 billion and is expected to reach £9.68 billion by 2022.

As the company’s founder, Dr Atif Syed brings extensive expertise in electronics, nanotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence as he leads the company in scaling up manufacturing processes and bringing its first products to market. 

Atif is also developing a strategic roadmap for future technological developments, including using Wootzkin for in tyre pressure monitoring and prosthetics. The electronic skin can also be used for robots deployed in extreme conditions, such as the autonomous maintenance and repair of wind turbine blades.

Traction

• 2018: Funding awarded by Scottish Edge to support Wootzano in scaling up.
• 2018: Innovate UK awards funds to support Wootzano’s work in integrating its electronic skin for robotics in extreme conditions.

Dr Syed was awarded a 2018 Enterprise Fellowship to support him in scaling up his startup and refining its technology to bring it to market.

Dr Supti Sarkar leads the Technology and Investments Group at PwC. She is responsible for the commercialisation of new tech ventures across the firm, and works with in-house entrepreneurs to get their products market ready.

Supti was formally a management consultant at PA Consulting, where she worked with international and regional governments to support their trade and investment strategies. She was also part of Mayor Sadiq Khan's 2016 delegation to Chicago and New York as part of her role in supporting high growth companies entering the US market for the first time. Supti holds a first class degree and PhD in engineering from University College London and is mum to an eight-year-old daughter.

Dr Douglas C Anderson OBE FREng FRSE has a 40-year business career covering almost every aspect, at every level, of healthcare technology product design and product commercialisation processes.

Having trained in industrial design engineering (Edinburgh Napier University 1974), Douglas progressed from hands on designer to the management of design in the high-tech arena.

Using his consulting company Crombie Anderson as a base for innovation and incubation, he subsequently spun out three other high-tech startup companies, two of which became publicly traded business operating in medical fields.

Douglas was the prime mover in these businesses by leading both the innovation and commercialisation processes, including raising over £40 million in private and institutional funding prior to floatation. Today he is internationally recognised for his innovation and entrepreneurial experience and is a regular keynote speaker at healthcare and business congresses around the world.

In 1990, his five-year-old son Leif suffered a spontaneous retinal detachment that went undetected until it was too late to treat. Douglas was struck by the limited capability of diagnostic tools available to practitioners to examine the retina and decided to address this issue. He built a dedicated research team, which led to the formation of Optos plc, a business funded by Archangel from the outset.

Optos succeeded in designing and patenting a scanning laser ophthalmoscope: the world's first ophthalmic device that enabled eye care professionals to capture a digital ultra wide-field image of the almost the entire retina in a single scan. The new method of examining the retina, marketed as the optomap® Retinal Exam, is now offered as the preferred standard of care by tens of thousands of eye-care specialists globally. Over 200 million optomap® retinal exams have been conducted worldwide and a number of novel diagnostic techniques added to improve the understanding and treatment of a wider range of conditions that have been historically difficult to manage.

In 2006 Douglas was awarded an OBE for services to healthcare. Douglas was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2013.

David is an investor and CEO with companies based on technology and innovation.  

After a degree in electrical engineering at the Technion and an MBA from INSEAD,  David worked his way to senior management and board level in a wide range of sectors including sustainability, construction, life sciences, manufacturing, mobile telephony, cyber security and software. His broad experience ranges from startups to public companies, from turnaround missions and crisis management to business development and growth.     

David is deeply involved in the UK startup space, as a member of UKBAA, VCs, EIS funds and university angel groups, and is an active mentor with the Royal Academy of Engineering and Imperial College London’s IVMS programme. He also serves as a non-executive on the board of directors of Kerur Holdings (a public company), the board of governors of the Technion, as an advisor with the US accelerator Silicon Catalyst and the board of trustees of Hadassah UK.

He believes that success comes from a culture of excellence, a multidisciplinary approach, and that the boundaries between B2B/B2C and startups/LargeCo are increasingly blurred.

Richard joined sustainability investment focused Earth Capital Group in 2009 and has worked both on the group’s investment in investment managers and direct growth company investments, including most recently the fund’s investments in SoftIron and Propelair. He takes a leading role in promoting technology transfer opportunities across the group’s international offices.

Prior to joining Earth Capital, Richard was an Investment Director with IBIS Asset Management Ltd, a London-based captive advisor to a large Caribbean conglomerate. Richard was earlier a senior manager in the London office of L.E.K. Consulting, a global strategy consultancy. During his five years with LEK he provided due diligence advice, in numerous large cap and mid-market private equity deals, and advised corporate clients on corporate strategy, business unit growth strategy, process redesign and cost reduction programmes.

A chartered engineer, his early career included successful engineering, operations and customer support management roles with Ford Motor Company and Visteon Corporation. Richard holds an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD and MEng and MA (First Class) degrees in engineering from the University of Cambridge. He is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment, and a Chartered Member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and a Sainsbury Management Fellow.

Dr Andrew Hosty FREng is an international leader with over 15 years of non-executive board experience and 30 years of executive and management experience, spanning private equity, UK Plc and global blue-chip corporates. He is non-executive director of a companies including: RHI-Magnesita, the global leader in the manufacture and supply of refractories; James Cropper Plc, who create some of the world’s most distinctive and technically advanced paper products; and Rights and Issues Investment Trust Plc, a fund that focuses on small cap UK industrials. 

Andrew is Non-Executive Chairman of mOm Incubators ltd, a pre-revenue startup developing low-cost baby incubators for crisis zones. He is also Non-Executive Chairman of Nexeon ltd, a company developing next-generation cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. From 2016 to 2018 Andrew was the CEO of the Sir Henry Royce Institute, the UK's home of advanced materials research and innovation. He was Chief Operating Officer of Morgan Advanced Materials, and served on the Plc Board as an Executive Director from 2010 to 2016. 

From 2013 to 2016 he served on the board of Consort Medical Plc, a healthcare company focused on developing advanced delivery technologies, formulation and manufacturing solutions for drugs. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, holds a PhD from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sheffield and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2011).

Chris McIntosh joined Methera Global as CEO in 2017. The company’s vision is to enable the delivery of digital applications to rural and underserved communities worldwide via a resilient constellation of Ka band MEO satellites. He previously spent seven years as CEO of ViaSat UK where he was responsible for the inception and growth of ViaSat’s UK satellite capabilities.  Headquartered in the US, ViaSat are renowned as being one of the most disruptive players in the satellite communications and security domain.

Before joining ViaSat Chris was CEO of Stonewood Group, developers of state-of-the-art cyber products and services.  He is a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the British Army and has worked within the challenging, high threat cyber and communications environment for over 30 years. He holds a BSc in computer science, MSc in design of computer systems and an MBA.  He is a member of the UKspace trade association and the National Security and Resilience Consortium, and is a chartered engineer. 

Roy Williamson has been helping companies see how their new innovations can disrupt markets for over 20 years.

For the past six years has been successfully helping early stage companies identify and define their strengths, enhance their uniqueness and develop their storylines to engage investors. Roy’s background is in engineering and cleantech and since 2013, he’s been supporting SMEs and entrepreneurs across a broad area of technologies and innovative business models.

Roy is an aeronautical engineer and started his career at Alstom, developing algorithms and models to estimate hardware costs of power generation gas turbines based purely on, often novel, thermodynamic cycles. He has assessed innovation ecosystems of the UK, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. He has also co-authored guides to support technology developers in the UK automotive sector assess technology readiness levels and help those in the biofuels sector to review pathways for second generation biofuels. He’s appraised novel technology solutions for blue-chip clients, developed proof of concepts and carried out due diligence activities to support investor decision making. He is passionate about the UK and knowledge-intensive companies, from software to deeptech.

Roy is Head of Origination at the Department for International Trade with relationships across the department’s teams, government and the UK’s innovation and investment ecosystem.

Professor Mark Arthur Tooley FREng is the immediate Past President of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine. He was the Head of the Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering and Director of Research and Development at the Royal United Hospitals, Bath until 2017 when he retired from full-time NHS work.  Since then, he has held several part-time roles. He is a specialist scientific advisor for NHS England, a digital clinical advisor for the West of England Academic Health Science network, and a healthcare technology consultant. He is a registered Consultant Clinical Scientist, an honorary professor at the University of Bath, and a visiting professor at the University of the West of England.

Mark completed his BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bath in 1979. He was sponsored by Westinghouse Brake and Signal company for the four years of the course. He then did an MSc and PhD in Medical Physics at the University of London. His MSc thesis was developing a EEG frequency analyser for anaesthesia. For his PhD research, Mark invented (with a cardiologist) an original method for rate-independent diagnosis of cardiac rhythm for implantable devices, which was patented.  He spent the rest of his career in Medical Physics and Bioengineering departments, both in hospitals and academia, working along medical colleagues. He has worked at St Bartholomew’s hospital in London, Bristol University, United Bristol healthcare NHS Trust, and the Royal United Hospital, Bath. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal College of Physicians, the Institute of Engineering and Technology, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, and the Institute of Physics. He is a chartered engineer and chartered scientist. Mark is on the peer-review college of EPSRC, has recently been a member of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Healthcare Technologies Strategic Advisory Team and the Royal Society Fellowship panel.

Mark has been a long-standing member of the Panel for Biomedical Engineering at the Royal Academy of Engineering (now called the healthcare policy topic group). He was recently a member of the biomedical engineering membership panel, the Policy Committee, and the working group for Systems thinking in healthcare. He has mentored on the enterprise scheme.

Mark’s research interests include innovations in medicine, physics applications in anaesthesia, simulation in medicine, physiological measurement, biological signal processing, measuring the depth of anaesthesia, blood pressure measurement and novel patient monitoring solutions.

Dr Liane Smith FREng founded Intetech Ltd in 1991, winning the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2012 for its software. She sold the business to Wood Group in 2013 and in 2018 she left to form a new consulting engineering business, Larkton Ltd.

Liane is enthusiastic about the capability of digital technologies to transform businesses, bringing efficiencies, cost reduction, production control and increasing safety. In her last role as Senior Vice President Digital Solutions for Wood, she built the new global service line and defined its strategy roadmap and development plan. Her expertise is in various specialist branches of engineering in the industrial and energy sectors and in software product design and commercialisation, data management, data analysis, and analytics.