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Nia Simpson, one of SETsquared Bath’s 2018-19 awardees of the prestigious Alumni Innovation Award, is taking her final-year mechanical engineering project, the Compact Cane, to the commercial market.
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The long-term success of start-ups is often down to the quality of support they receive in the early days. Access to vital seed investment, contacts, networks and training is mission critical to budding entrepreneurs.
We’re therefore hugely excited by the return of GradInvest, the event which gives businesses formed by recent graduates a platform to raise investment and gain support, on 21 May.
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Previous SETsquared Bath members, MoveGB has generated more £1m for the fitness, yoga and dance instructors across the country since launching its lockdown-inspired Move At Home service. In less than a month more than 40,000 classes have been streamed through the service and the number of classes and providers continues to grow by the day.
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On Monday 27th April, HM Treasury announced further financial support in the form of a ‘Bounce Back Loan’.
Bounce back loans are for small businesses meaning you might be eligible to borrow between £2K-50K and most importantly access the cash within days. The loans will be interest free for the first 12 months.
Apply from Monday 4th May.
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Congratulations to a fellow SETsquared partner, Exeter, for securing a £1M funding boost! The new project, called the SETsquared Student Enterprise Hub and led by the University of Exeter, has received the significant funding boost from the Office for Students (OfS) and Research England.
The two-year project will build on the SETsquared Partnership’s Student Enterprise Programme, as well as existing undergraduate and postgraduate placement activities, to create a new ‘Intrapreneurial’ pathway.
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Billion pound support package for innovative firms hit by coronavirus
UK businesses driving innovation and development will be helped through the coronavirus outbreak with a £1.25 billion government support package, the Chancellor announced today (20.04.20). The comprehensive package includes a new £500 million loan scheme for high-growth firms, called the Future Fund, and £750 million of targeted support for small and medium sized businesses focusing on research and development.
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Over three afternoons in April expert speakers and coaches from each ERDF sector ran our first Business Acceleration Growth Hub workshop for entrepreneurs which covered a wide variety of subjects from business model design, customer insight, prototyping the business model and finance / investor perspectives.
With the ability to screen share and utilise breakout rooms, participants were able to interact with mentors and their fellow innovators.
Great feedback was received and we’ll be hosting another virtual workshop again in June!
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PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION!
The petition asks the council and the West of England Mayor Tim to offer support for businesses who currently aren't able to access government support.
Specifically, businesses who are located in managed spaces (like the Innovation Centre) aren't generally able to receive a £10,000 grant because they won't have previously filled out a Small Business Rates Relief form. We're asking them to do something about that and offer support to our community.
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Another brilliant case study to come out of the Sustainable Technologies Business Acceleration Hub. Read about recent participants, Adaptavate and how the Hub has supported them to reach their market potential - for free!
Adaptavate have a game changing innovation – Breathaboard - a bio-composite, breathable, more renewable, lower carbon alternative to plasterboard, which is the third most widely used building material on the planet. Gypsum is closely coupled to the production and burning of coal, which is being phased out, with plasterboard directly responsible for more than 3% of the UK CO2 emissions (Maskell et al 2017).
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Innovate UK would like to inform our members that if you are a recipient of an Innovate UK award and your project is being affected by COVID-19 you can apply for an extension of up to three months.
Innovate UK have created a fast track process to facilitate “no cost” time extension requests of up to three months for reasons relating to COVID-19, subject to a valid business case and normal legal and compliance requirements.
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The aim of this competition is to support UK businesses to focus on emerging or increasing needs of society and industries during and following the Covid-19 pandemic. By fast-tracking innovation, the UK will be better placed to maintain employment levels, a competitive position in global markets and make the UK more resilient to similar disruption.
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From an operational point of view, during these unprecedented times SETsquared Bath, will continue to support SME and start up companies through the ERDF Business Acceleration Hubs (BAH). The Sustainable Technologies BAH, Advanced Engineering BAH and Digital Innovation BAH will still continue to operate. Companies from across the West of England innovating within these sectors can continue to take advantage of the free support available through the Business Acceleration Hubs.
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A total of 250 face shields, produced within the Faculty of Engineering & Design, have been delivered to the hospital’s emergency department and medical assessment unit in the past three days. The face shields are designed to protect medical staff and cut the transmission of the virus during patient appointments.
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In view of the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday evening we have no alternative but to take the drastic step of closing down the Innovation Centre reception. From 12:30pm today the reception will be virtual although in emergencies, resident businesses will still be able to access their offices using their keycards and you will be able to contact us on the usual number. We would encourage working from home wherever possible unless you have been provided with documentation that your presence is essential.
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As we find ourselves in unprecedented times how we can keep business going as usual during these times of social distancing and inevitably isolation is something we are all working towards - we wanted to let you know that our commitment to supporting our SETsquared Bath members and business community is still at the forefront of what we do.
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You will have seen that the Chancellor has announced that the British Business Bank will manage the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) which will become available in the week commencing 23 March 2020. It will be delivered through a range of over 40 accredited lenders and offer attractive terms for both businesses applying for new facilities and lenders, with the aim of supporting the continued provision of finance to UK businesses experiencing increased costs or disruptions to cashflow during the Covid-19 outbreak.
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Pushme Bikes, founded in 2016 by Daniel Keene and University of Bath alumnus and former Innovation Award winner George Kalligeros, was backed by SOS Ventures and Velocity Partners.
Following hard in the slipstream of Zynstra’s recent acquisition by US giant NCR, reports emerging from German sources highlight the “acqui-hire” in January of former SETsquared Bath member PushMe Bikes by cutting edge Berlin-based e-scooter fleet startup Tier Mobility. Both deals recognise the importance of close strategic fit in achieving a successful M&A exit.
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University of Bath graduate and founder of The Biofactory is embarking on an £850k project to bring to life his vision for improved sanitation facilities in low income, high density communities in Africa.
Eoin Sharkey, MEng alumnus, has designed an all-in-one, off-grid toilet and waste processing system that utilises biodigestion to convert human waste into cooking fuel and soil conditioner. The funding, which is made up of £675k from Innovate UK’s Energy Catalyst Fund with the remainder coming from private investors, will enable Eoin to take his invention from a development system to a commercially viable product.
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Bath-based Cognisess set out on a mission to eradicate the subjective biases that unconsciously yet inevitably take place during the job application process. Driven by a unique combination of data science, neuro-science, artificial intelligence and machine learning, Cognisess supports companies in making more informed, data-led human resource decisions. In order to tackle this huge issue, Cognisess aims to be the leading software platform for predictive people analytics via a single, easy-to use platform.
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The programme is organised by Global No. 1 business incubator, SETsquared and this programme was designed for early stage companies innovating in the sustainable technologies sector. Expert speakers and coaches from the sector ran the course which covered a wide variety of subjects from business model design, customer insight, prototyping the business model and finance / investor perspectives.
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