The first London Technology Fund Competition was in 2008. The success of the 2008 programme led us to repeat the competition in 2009, with an expanded programme of workshops and additional major technology corporates joining the speed dating event. For details of the sponsors, supporters and winners in 2008 please see below.
Nearly 150 young companies registered for the Competition. The quality of applicants was so high that the first stage of the programme was expanded to allow 40 companies to participate in a series of training and advice workshops run by specialists over the summer. A shortlist progressed to the speed-dating event, where 21 semi-finalists joined 20 representatives of major technology companies and their corporate venture capital funds at the Chartered Accountants' Hall in the City of London. The finalists received further training before presenting their proposal to a panel of expert judges. Winners were announced at an Awards Ceremony and Reception on 29 October, attended by major corporates, investors, entrepreneurs, academics and professionals.
The London Technology Fund Competition 2008 Awards Ceremony and Reception on 29 October 2008 at The Royal Bank of Scotland, 280 Bishopsgate, London EC2
Winner of the Grand Prix and Life Sciences Sector Award Winner
Accentus Medical
Accentus Medical provides medical device companies with advanced technological processes and products, including surface coatings and modifications designed to enhance implant fixation, promote bone in-growth and reduce the risk of post-operative infection. The company is a spin-out from the UK Atomic Energy Authority with established products and services and a research and development group focused on the development of IP in the orthopaedic area, including a new technology, Agluna®, designed to provide bactericidal protection for surgical implants.
Dr Philip Agg, Chief Executive of Accentus Medical, stated: "We are delighted to be sector winners and the overall winner of the Grand Prix and we are very grateful to the London Technology Fund for the opportunity to participate in this innovative and prestigious competition. The training workshops have been an excellent source of information and knowledge for our management team, providing us with an essential business toolkit as we embark on the exciting journey of growing the company, delivering excellent products and services to our customers and building value for our investors".
Winner of the ICT Sector Award
Office-Shadow
Office-Shadow is a provider of business continuity planning and operational risk management software solutions. Its Shadow-Planner suite of software helps companies to control and manage risk by streamlining the continuity planning process to make it quicker, more efficient and cost-effective. The key modules help customers graphically define their mission critical processes and assess the impact of failure of those processes upon the business, undertake threat analysis on key assets and resources, develop and maintain effective and up-to-date continuity plans and, through a compliance scorecard, monitor adherence to best practice.
Nigel Hopkinson, CEO of Office-Shadow, said, "We are delighted to be the winners of the ICT Sector Award of this year's Competition and to have taken part in the summer programme of workshops and speed-dating. The focus on expert training and advice and on building partnerships with major corporates was a great help to us in preparing for venture capital investment and in establishing relationships with potential customers".
Winner of the Design and Engineering Sector Award
Feed Me Bottles
Feed me Bottles has developed the Yoomi™ Self-Warming Bottle. The Yoomi™ bottle is a unique and innovative feeding bottle that enables parents to provide warmed feed for their babies within seconds of activation. The bottle can be used in the traditional way but also incorporates a patented unit that warms cold feed. The warmer uses a phase change material that generates heat when activated. This heat gently warms the feed that flows over the warmer to the teat whilst the baby is drinking. The unit can be recharged up to 100 times before needing to be replaced.
Dr Jim Shaikh, MD, said, "Our involvement in the LTF competition has been instrumental in moving us forward as a business and in particular becoming investment ready. The mixed programme of workshops for basic learning and exposure to the real world investment community such as the speed-dating event was ideal for a company such as ourselves who are preparing to raise institutional finance. We were delighted to win the sector award".
Winner of the Environment Award
Stabilitech
Stabilitech Ltd has developed a novel proprietary technology designed to stabilise live viral vaccines and other biological products - enabling stable storage over a wide range of temperatures. This means that vaccines incorporating the technology can be stored and transported without the need for end-to-end refrigeration. It will greatly reduce the significant wastage of vaccines and biopharmaceuticals due to heat/freeze damage. The technology also will facilitate stockpiling of vaccines such as for pandemic influenza.
Dr Barbara Domayne-Hayman, Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are delighted to have won the Environment Award at the LTF competition awards ceremony last night. The competition programme was very well organised, with a wide variety of workshops covering key aspects of business for early stage companies. The 'speed dating' event, where we had the opportunity to meet major corporates and investors, was particularly useful".
Finalists in the London Technology Fund Competition 2008
The breadth and depth of technology amongst entrants is illustrated by the range and quality of finalists. In addition to the four winners, the finalists included the following:
Lontra
Lontra is a cleantech start-up developing novel, energy efficient engines and compressors.
Simon Hombersley, Business Development Director, said, "The LTF competition has been an excellent process, giving us access both to high quality, well targeted training and a selection of useful contacts. We're very grateful for the opportunity to participate".
Novocellus Ltd
Novocellus has developed a non-invasive method for selecting those embryos that are most likely to lead to a successful pregnancy in in vitro fertilisation procedures, helping to overcome the high level of multiple embryo transfers with its increased risk of clinical complications.
Dr Bob Hanley, Chief Executive, said, "Reaching the final of the LTF Competition 2008 is fantastic and a tribute to the commitment and sheer hard work of the entire Novocellus team. The management of the Competition process has been highly professional and the workshop programme has taught many new skills and refreshed some old ones. For the experience alone, the journey has been well worthwhile".
Shadow Robot Company Limited
Shadow Robot provides robotic hardware and software, with its primary product being a robotic hand which has the twenty-four degrees of movement of the human hand.
Richard Greenhill, Chairman and Founder, said, "We found the LTF Speed Dating Event format to be an extremely productive use of our time. We were introduced to six leading potential customers and funding sources from industry in twenty minute bursts. After identifying areas of mutual interest, we were able to "cut to the chase" and directly explore mutual opportunities without the preamble. I would recommend this event to other executives and companies without hesitation as an efficient and effective means to expand new business opportunities".
Skimbit
Skimbit is an online social decision-making tool, for users to collect ideas and make decisions, and for websites to add a community and new revenue stream.
Alicia Navarro, Founder and CEO, said, "The LTF competition takes a broad view of enterprise, and it has been fantastic to swap tales with other contestants from vastly different technical fields. The support, advice and ideas that the LTF competition programme has given has been extraordinary too".
Y-cam Solutions Ltd
Y-cam Solutions Ltd is a manufacturer and solution provider of affordable easy-to-use IP video monitoring systems.
Devin Chawda, Managing Director, "I am thrilled we have come so far in the competition and I have found the whole process to be extremely useful. The "speed-dating" event was particularly beneficial as we had a very rare opportunity to meet face-to-face with the relevant people within a number of large organisations".
Sponsored by:
Oracle
PricewaterhouseCoopers
The Royal Bank of Scotland
Supporters included: BASF Venture Capital, BP, BT, Cisco, College Hill,
Eli Lilly & Company, ICAEW, Intel Capital, Kilburn & Strode, Marriott Harrison,
MessageLab, Motorola Ventures, Pera, PharmaVentures, Rolls-Royce, Smith & Nephew, Siemens, SR One (GSK's Venture Fund), Trinamo and Unilever.