Investors click with Imperial startups

Prof. Omar Matar pitches his startup, Quaisr, at Imperial's online pitch event

Investors from around the world joined Imperial’s first online investor pitch event to hear from a wide range of startups from Imperial.

An audience of almost 400 individual and institutional investors, members of the general public and Imperial colleagues registered to explore the breadth of talent and invention at Imperial and hear pitches from startups in markets as diverse as robotic surgery and mail-room parcel management.

The event kicked off with a pitch from Professor Molly Stevens for her proposed startup Zyme Biosciences, which will use the previously demonstrated QwikZyme rapid diagnostic technology to develop an ultrasensitive point-of-care diagnostic for Covid-19. Other startups to present included Bumblebee Power, a misalignment-tolerant wireless charging provider for the mid-power lightweight micro-mobility market, Neoptera Surgical, a Medtech startup developing precision AI supported robotic surgery, and Quaisr, a simulation and machine learning tool with uncertainty quantification for engineers.

Alongside startup pitches, attendees to the event heard from senior figures from across Imperial’s entrepreneurial support network, with short presentations from Dr Govind Pindoria on entrepreneurship at Imperial, Ben Mumby-Croft on the range of support available to startups, and Brijesh Roy on how to engage with investment opportunities.

Startups that have participated in Imperial's many student support programmes were also in evidence, including: ApTap, which creates white-labelled financial management APIs that allow banks to offer bill management tools to their customers, DASH, which offers micro-mobility-as-a-service to businesses and their employees, and hydroCotton, which uses data-driven agriculture and controlled environments to grow radically more sustainable cotton.

Moray Wright, of Parkwalk Advisors, the firm that manages the Imperial College Innovation Fund, was also on hand to give an overview of the £1.5 million EIS fund that is currently fundraising and which aims to invest in 6 – 8 Imperial startups over the coming year.

Dr Govind Pindoria, Associate Director of Startup Formation at Imperial, said: “Events like this one showcase the incredible range of startups that are enabled and supported by Imperial College London. We’re excited to see deep-science companies emerge alongside those developing consumer products or online marketplaces. Imperial’s combined offer of world-class education and extensive entrepreneurial support means that more startups than ever are emerging from the university.”

Foregoing the usual drinks and nibbles that accompany investment pitch events, investors who attended and joined the Imperial Investor Network are now able to access a data room providing further information on all the pitching companies and arrange follow-up calls with founders.

Those who were unable to attend the event can view the full session on catch-up.

Imperial College Innovation Fund event

Learn more about the recently-launched Imperial College Innovation Fund with the Fund-managers Parkwalk Advisors on Thursday 21 May