White city incubator building

Imperial's thriving ecosystem is producing the next generation of innovators working towards sustainable development for all

Global Development Hub Newsletter

Compiles information on:

  • Upcoming Events and Community Building
  • Research and Impact
  • Education, Training and Capacity Building
  • Global Engagement

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At Imperial College London, we have enterprise in our DNA. Since we were founded in 1907, we have had a mission to offer the most advanced education and research, collaborate with other organisations, and apply our work to industry. Today, we have a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem: a home for businesses, researchers and the next generation of innovators working towards the UN SDGs.

The Enterprise Lab has a strong record of accomplishment in engaging with and supporting entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems; locally, nationally and internationally. Since inception in 2016 it has supported the creation of 209 student startups, employing 480 employees and collectively raising £50m+ in investor funding. This includes RFC Power, a group developing a low-cost, long-duration battery that will facilitate the transition to 100% renewable energy and is working on a project to improve access to clean, reliable and affordable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 Our flagship WE Innovate Programme is a pre-accelerator programme, with one main goal – to increase the number of women in leadership positions, running startups and raising funding. In total 253 female entrepreneurs have been supported, 34 ventures have been incorporated and £3.2 million has been raised in funding.  Programme graduate Clementine Chambon launched Oorja Development Solutions, which is currently working in rural India installing pay-as-you-go community solar pumping systems, as an alternative to expensive and unreliable diesel irrigations pumps.

 In addition to the vibrant start-up ecosystem supported by advanced hackspace, incubation, acceleration and collaborative research space, the College is also one of the world’s most industrially connected universities with a range of industry-research centres working on sustainable development and the transition to zero pollution. This includes: the ABB-Imperial Smart Energy Demonstrator; The Leonardo Centre for Sustainable Business; the Syngenta-Imperial Agri-tech Doctoral Training Programme.

We are currently growing our innovation ecosystem at our White City campus in West London with a new, vibrant environment to incubate businesses started by our staff, students and collaborators.