News

The pros and cons of taking early stage technology to the market

Dr Nicola Broughton’s experience of a University start-up Company

Speaker: Dr Nicola Broughton of TechTranIP

Nicola is a consultant specialising in the commercialisation of Intellectual Property, she has over 15 years’ experience in adding value to intellectual property for Universities and small companies, advising them on how to get Intellectual Property to the market and lecturing on the subject at Warwick Business School.

She has fulfilled a number of commercial roles. Her experience includes: sourcing and identifying commercial opportunities; IP protection; strategy and management (managing a patent portfolio to global protection); “freedom to operate”; licensing; cross licensing; due diligence; and raising finance in both the public and private sectors, as well as writing business plans. Nicola has experience of negotiating commercial deals with large and small corporations, universities and CROs.

Nicola has access to early stage funders and to a wide range of industry experts who can bring their experience to bear on early stage technology. She recently helped a small business start-up a high tech company and raise £400,000 seed finance.

Nicola will talk about her experience of starting up a company and particularly the things she wished she had known before she embarked on the project. She will look at raising finance, what to do when things go wrong and you have to change your strategy, how to resource the project using different models, the intellectual property challenge and life cycles and exit strategies.

Registration via Eventbrite essential: http://bit.ly/1piZU1L

Wednesday 25^th June 2014, 12-2pm (Lunch provided)

BizzInn 2^nd Floor, Institute of Research & Development

Birmingham Research Park

Spring Active founder, Peter Dines shares his experience of how BizzInn support has helped to develop his latest healthcare business

“I originally started to use the BizzInn facilities in October 2013 following a chance conversation with the CEO of Alta Innovations, James Wilkie. At the time I was working on my own and had just started my company, Spring Active, which is focused on alleviating back pain.

I was attracted to BizzInn because I am passionate about supporting Birmingham based entrepreneurs and benefits from the office space and advice. I had recently acquired the knowledge and assets of my business and needed to focus on business development. As any business owner would say, the chances of low fixed costs enabled me to focus more on business generation. BizzInn provided this opportunity and also opened up access to their network of contacts.

It was this access to their network which really helped to develop my business. I gained free advice and guidance on Intellectual Property and was introduced to specific people within the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Psychology Department, University of Birmingham Health Economics Department and healthcare sector.

BizzInn holds breakfast and business club meetings and it was through one of these meetings that I met a very important business contact who I have worked with ever since. Whilst based at BizzInn I completely re-launched the offering of my business so that it provides a full integrated pathway for back pain management which is a niche market to operate in.

It is a nice environment to work in at BizzInn and through my experiences and knowledge I have been able to help other tenants as they develop their businesses.

With the help of BizzInn, my business has grown significantly in a short period of time. I have employed two full time and one part time members of staff. As I grew I needed more office space and in March 2014 I graduated to larger offices within Birmingham Research Park. I wanted to remain part of the environment as the Parks location within the Edgbaston Medical Quarter is the natural place to locate my business. As part of this move I re-located another of my businesses, Diagnostic Health, as for me it is the perfect location to develop healthcare business in Birmingham.

My future plans for Spring Active are to achieve its social purpose of solving back pain whilst achieving commercial success. On a personal level I want to continue developing high quality health care companies in Birmingham.

I would definitely recommend BizzInn to any business that is looking to develop.”

Spring Active are an experienced team of clinicians whose passion is to treat and resolve back pain, they have developed and provide a number of programmes aimed at successfully treating back pain. To find out more, visit their website: http://spring-active.com/

For further information on how you can access business support at the BizzInn, contact Andrew Cruxton on 0121 414 6132 or email [email protected] for further information.

Monday 19th May 2014 12pm
Birmingham Research Park

Have you ever thought about the commercial potential of your research?

We would like to invite you to our recruitment event being held on Monday 19th May 12-1pm at Birmingham Research Park.

Medici is an intensive training programme designed for research staff wanting to become involved in the commercial development of research or who are already involved in a project and want to improve their business related skills and knowledge in order to engage more professionally in this arena.

The aim of the course to introduce you to some key business concepts and terminology to help you to understand how business operates and makes decisions. The areas we cover include building relationships with business, finance, market analysis, writing a business plan (including raising finance), protection of intellectual property, networking, negotiation, sales and pitching skills. The course runs over 3 two day modules (from October to December) and a final day in January. The training is delivered by a number of external providers and involves lots of interaction and group work.

The Medici Programme provides an excellent opportunity to network with like minded people, we can take up to 40 delegates on the course each year, some of whom will be from other universities.

Application forms for Medici 2014/15 are available from Sofia Hansrod, [email protected]. Places on the course are allocated on a first come first served basis.

This session will be an opportunity to find about the Medici programme and how it can benefit your research career, you’ll hear from previous Medici fellows; Professor Andrew Peet from the School of Cancer Sciences and Professor Ed Rainger from the School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine about how the course has developed the scope and applications of their research.

Register now!

New Funding Will Accelerate Access to Clinical Value, Says CEO

Cytox Ltd, a leading developer of assays for risk assessment and prediction of dementia, has announced the successful completion of a second round of funding, closing at £1.5M.

New shareholders include Seneca Partners Ltd. and the round was led by existing shareholder, SPARK, Northwest Fund for Biomedical with strong support from other existing shareholders including Wren Capital and The Rainbow Seed Fund (Midven), as well as private investors.

This round brings the total raised by Cytox in the last 15 months in excess of £5M, following the close of the previous round of £3.5 in May 2013.

“We started an extensive evaluation programme for our mTOR pathway biomarker technology last month,” commented Dr. Richard Pither, CEO of Cytox, “This new money will allow us to extend the clinical research programme and more rapidly access potentially valuable utility claims.” Dr. Pither explained further that, “With two clinical programmes in both the European Union and North America, state of the art laboratory capabilities in Manchester UK and a partnership with a US-based laboratory, Selah Genomics, Cytox has progressed its plans rapidly in 2014.”

Dr. Pither also commented that the laboratory facilities and partnership would allow the company to partner with academia and industry in Europe and North America in the development of new Alzheimer’s disease therapies and biomarkers.

Richard Manley for Seneca commented: “We like the technology and the Cytox team and believe they have the ability to deliver significant value in a field with substantial unmet need. A simple blood-based biomarker of risk for Alzheimer’s would be a perfect complement to existing technology and could provide unique insight in very early disease where there are few symptoms or disease pathology to guide treatment.”

“We were pleased to be able to lead this new round and be joined by so many existing shareholders” said Dr. Penny Attridge of SPARK Impact. “The Cytox management have executed well against plan and continue to identify new opportunities for value with this exciting new technology.”

 

 

Mercia Fund Management announcement

 

University of Birmingham spinout, Smart Antenna Technologies secures extra funding

Mercia Fund Management leads further investment in telecoms start-up

Birmingham, 19 February 2014. Smart Antenna Technologies (SAT) today announced the completion of a further investment lead by Mercia Fund Management, the investment syndicate included Angel investors, the company’s management team and family offices. The investment will fund product development and sales and marketing activities.

SAT provides an innovative single-antenna technology enabling mobile device manufacturers to replace all existing antennae with a single multi-band antenna, the performance of which will match that of the separate antennae at their specified frequencies.

SAT’s technology has emerged from research by Professor Peter Hall, Professor Peter Gardener and Dr Sampson Hu, leading experts in radio antenna technology at the University of Birmingham.  The spinout has been nurtured by the University’s Enterprise Acceleration Team and its technology transfer company Alta Innovations Limited.

SAT has made significant progress since its launch in August 2013.  It completed a demonstrator of the technology and is working with leading consumer electronic suppliers in each of its key market sectors; mobile phone, laptops and tablets, in-car electronics and micro-base stations. SAT expects to convert these engagements into ‘design wins’ for inclusion in future products over the next 12 months.

Rick Hillum, CEO of SAT, comments: “As handset manufacturers are rolling out devices more frequently, they are looking to produce fewer variants. Consumers also want the ability to use their mobile device globally; our antenna provides seamless multi-continent coverage whilst supporting all other integrated functions that would normally require separate antenna¹s. We are rapidly ramping-up discussions with a number of the leading portable device manufacturers and chip-set suppliers and remain on course to produce our first antenna later this year.”

Everard Mascarenhas of Mercia Fund Management added: “We are extremely

pleased with the progress the company has made within such a short time.  The performance of the demonstrator exceeded our expectations both in terms of its technical performance and the time-scale in which it has been produced.  We were always very confident that the benefits SAT’s technology had to offer would attract mobile device manufacturers, the speed with which the tier 1 suppliers have engage with SAT has surprised and delighted us and validated the market opportunity.  This only confirms our believe in the disruptive nature of the technology and the quality, commitment and focus of the management team”

About the technology

Currently mobile devices require a separate antenna to support each communication technology such as Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, GSM and 3G/4G. 4G phones are expected to have up to six narrow band antennae operating on individual band segments. This is highly inefficient in terms of cost and space occupied in the device.  The patented solution uses a novel foil or printable antenna and control chip to produce a compact multi-frequency antenna.

 

SAT single antenna solution is expected to ultimately cost a few dollars per handset compared to several dollar per antenna for existing mobile devices. Additionally, SAT uses software re-configurable hardware enabling manufacturers to produce one device for all territories, reduce costs and streamline manufacturing & logistics. SAT’s technology has already generated interest from its target customers, including include cellular handset and chipset manufacturers.

This technology delivers major benefits on every critical constraint for handset manufacturers, including cost, design flexibility, space, single product for multiple territories and extended battery life. It is also fully complementary to existing RF solutions being used by the mobile phone industry and emerging products such as Qualcomm’s RF360 technology.

About Smart Antenna Technologies

Smart Antenna Technologies (SAT) is a spinout company from the University of Birmingham, based at Birmingham Research Park. The team have designed, developed and patented a pioneering smart antenna technology. The market for this highly scalable technology is the global cellular handset market. SAT’s remarkable innovation has led to the creation of a significant number of patent applications, both filed and in process.

Today, handset manufacturers are seeking an effective antenna solution suitable for implementing the next generation of cellular handset technologies, known as Long Term Evolution (4G LTE). Currently, they are unable to achieve physically the desired antenna performance in a size that fits a cellular handset package at an acceptable volume cost. Current implementations from the leading handset manufacturers employ typically six antennas. The highly compact SAT technology replaces all existing antennas—DVB-H, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GSM, GPS, 3G multi-bands and 3.9/4G LTE—with just one. This single SAT device provides significantly lower costs, is smaller in size and offers much needed performance gains over existing designs and technology.

www.smartantennatech.com

About Mercia Fund Management

Mercia Fund Management (MFM) is a venture capital fund manager with over £19 million under active management.

MFM provides investment growth capital for businesses ranging from early commercial traction through to those seeking expansion or working capital that are trading profitably. Furthermore, MFM can also provide cost-effective incubator accommodation at Forward House in Henley-in-Arden coupled with centralised support services in keeping with its model as a hands-on, supportive investor.

MFM is an FCA authorised and regulated fund manager under FSMA (FRN: 524856).

www.merciafund.co.uk

About The University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham is a truly vibrant, global community and an internationally-renowned institution. Ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 4,000 international students from nearly 150 countries.

The University is home to nearly 30,000 students. With more than 7,500 postgraduate students from across the world, Birmingham is one of the most popular universities for postgraduate study in the UK.

The University plays an integral role in the economic, social and cultural growth of local and regional communities; working closely with businesses and organisations, employing approximately 6,000 staff and providing 10,000 graduates annually.

About Alta Innovations

Alta Innovations Ltd is the University of Birmingham’s technology transfer company and is responsible for the commercialisation of research undertaken at the University. Alta Innovations links academic research with business through licensing and spinout activity, collaborative research and consultancy projects to generate the new ideas, technologies and processes required to achieve competitive advantage.

The University of Birmingham is using its experience in both commercialising new technologies and in nurturing young companies, to help entrepreneurs and start-ups to transform innovation into enterprise through the new BizzInn incubator, run by the Enterprise Acceleration Team in association with Alta Innovations.

For more information about Alta Innovations please see: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/generic/alta-innovations/about/index.aspx

For more information about the Enterprise Acceleration Team and BizzInn Incubator please see: http://bizzinn.org/index.php

University of Birmingham launches Business Club to enhance engagement with SME’s

Businesses from across the region recently visited Birmingham Research Park for an opportunity to network, be informed about funding opportunities available and learn how they can access the knowledge and expertise at the University of Birmingham.

Delegates were also treated to an informative and entertaining talk on consumer markets and brand loyalty by marketing expert, Isabelle Szmigin, Professor of Marketing at the University of Birmingham.

The audience was a mix of business leaders who have already benefitted from engaging with the University of Birmingham and potential partners eager to tap into the considerable opportunities on offer from the University.

Nick Blinco, Director of Engagement, University of Birmingham welcomed guests and was delighted to announce the launch of The Birmingham Business Club which will be a gateway for business, in particular local SMEs, to the University.

“The Club will provide an opportunity for businesses to network with peers, find out ways to work with the University and also be able to influence how we can enhance our business offer. In addition it will facilitate debate as we are keen to listen to what business want and respond quickly.” commented Nick Blinco.

Businesses who become members of the Club will benefit from regular breakfast networking events, new funding announcements, access to a range of state-of-the art equipment and free hot desks and meeting rooms in the parks business incubator, BizzInn.

The BizzInn which hosted the event, is the University’s new business incubator, situated at Birmingham Research Park. It provides free space and access to specialist business advice and networking for entrepreneurial start-ups.

James Wilkie, Director of Research and Innovation Services at the University of Birmingham said, “We are delighted to showcase the support we have already given many businesses in the region and look forward to working with many more. Birmingham Research Park offers a vibrant location in the heart of Edgbaston with easy access to the University and the QE Hospital”. The Birmingham Business Club is one such service which can be accessed through BizzInn to interact with other businesses and the academic community.

To find out more about the benefits of becoming a member of the Birmingham Business Club contact the business team at the University of Birmingham, tel: 0121 414 5070 or email [email protected]

To find out more about BizzInn, contact Paul Field, tel: 0121 414 6132 or email: [email protected]

Smart Antenna Technologies brings single antenna solution to cellular handsets

Mercia Fund Management leads investment in University of Birmingham telecoms spinout. Smart Antenna Technologies (SAT) today announced the launch of its innovative single-antenna technology for mobile devices. The technology will enable smartphone and tablet device manufacturers to replace several antennae with a single multi-band antenna, the performance of which will match that of the separate antennae at their specified frequencies.

Currently mobile devices require a separate antenna to support each communication technology such as Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, GSM and 3G/4G. 4G phones are expected to have up to six narrow band antennae operating on individual band segments. This is highly inefficient in terms of cost and space occupied in the device.

SAT’s technology has emerged from research by Professor Peter Hall, Professor Peter Gardener and Dr Sampson Hu, leading experts in radio antenna technology at the University of Birmingham. The patented solution uses a novel foil or printable antenna and control chip to produce a compact multi-frequency antenna.

SAT’s single antenna solution is expected to ultimately cost a few dollars per handset compared to US $20 per handset for existing antennas. Additionally, SAT uses software re-configurable hardware enabling manufacturers to produce one device for all territories, reduce costs and streamline manufacturing and logistics. SAT’s technology has already generated interest from its target customers including cellular handset and chipset manufacturers.

This technology delivers major benefits on every critical constraint for handset manufacturers, including cost, design flexibility, space, single product for multiple territories and extended battery life. It is also fully complementary to existing RF solutions being used by the mobile phone industry and emerging products such as Qualcomm’s RF360 technology.

The new company is a spinout from the University of Birmingham. Originating from research funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) the development of the opportunity into a viable company has been supported by the University’s Enterprise Acceleration Team at its BizzInn Incubator, and its technology transfer company Alta Innovations Limited. The SAT team has been working with venture capital company, Mercia Fund Management (MFM), to secure its first investment, a Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme round, and will be shortly completing a further syndicated round led by Mercia. Funding will be used to produce the first product and customer deployment.

The company is led by Chairman Colin Tucker a global leader in the mobile industry having previously been the CTO and COO of Orange, the Founder & CEO of 3 in the UK before becoming Deputy Chairman of Hutchison 3G. CEO of the venture is Professor Rick Hillum, an experienced entrepreneur who has successfully led a number of start-ups in this space including Camitri Technologies, Software Radio Technology, Securicor Wireless Technologies, Intek Global Technologies, and Linear Modulation Technology.

Rick Hillum, CEO of SAT, comments: “As handset manufacturers are rolling out devices more frequently, they are looking to differentiate and this is where our antenna will reduce cost and produce less variants. Consumers also want the ability to use their mobile device as widely as possible and our antenna provides uninterrupted service between various communications technologies. We are currently in discussions with several of the leading mobile device manufacturers and chip set suppliers and are on course to produce our first antenna later this year.”

“We are working with Mercia Fund Management as they are trusted advisors that bring both funding and added value, in terms of feedback on our strategy and crucial contacts within our industry,” he concluded.

Everard Mascarenhas of Mercia Fund Management added: “We are extremely excited about the prospects of this world-beating technology. Currently 1.2 billion phones are manufactured each year; SAT’s technology has the potential to deliver a 10% – 20% reduction in the Bill of Materials for each of these products. It is one of the very few technologies that tick all the boxes for mobile phone manufacturers and it is not surprising that it is generating so much interest from handset manufacturers. Together with the management and the University, we have taken world-class research and created a company with a truly disruptive solution for smartphone and tablets which represent one of the fastest growing sectors in consumer electronics.”

David Coleman, Head of Spinout Portfolio for the University of Birmingham, said “we are delighted to have spun out SAT from the University and completed on this investment with Mercia Fund Management. With such a great combination of commercial management, intellectual property, and supportive investors, SAT is really well placed to advance this concept into a market-ready product.”

About Smart Antenna Technologies

Smart Antenna Technologies (SAT) is a spinout company from the University of Birmingham, and is based at the BizzInn Incubator, located within Birmingham Research Park. The team have designed, developed and patented a pioneering smart antenna technology. The market for this highly scalable technology is the global cellular handset market. SAT’s remarkable innovation has led to the creation of a significant number of patent applications, both filed and in process.

Today, handset manufacturers are seeking an effective antenna solution suitable for implementing the next generation of cellular handset technologies, known as Long Term Evolution (4G LTE). Currently, they are unable to achieve physically the desired antenna performance in a size that fits a cellular handset package at an acceptable volume cost. Current implementations from the leading handset manufacturers employ typically six antennas. The highly compact SAT technology replaces all existing antennas—DVB-H, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GSM, GPS, 3G multi-bands and 3.9/4G LTE—with just one. This single SAT device provides significantly lower costs, is smaller in size and offers much needed performance gains over existing designs and technology.

SAT has emerged from work initially funded by the EPSRC, and the concept has been refined and commercial proof of concept work undertaken following further support from EPSRC through both its Pathways to Impact grant and Institutional Sponsorship Fund and the University of Birmingham’s own Enterprising Birmingham Fund.

http://www.smartantennatech.com/

About Mercia Fund Management

Mercia Fund Management (MFM) is a venture capital fund manager with over £19 million under active management. MFM provides investment growth capital for businesses ranging from early commercial traction through to those seeking expansion or working capital that are trading profitably. Furthermore, MFM can also provide cost-effective incubator accommodation at Forward House in Henley-in-Arden coupled with centralised support services in keeping with its model as a hands-on, supportive investor.

MFM is an FCA authorised and regulated fund manager under FSMA (FRN: 524856).

http://www.merciafund.co.uk/

About The University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham is a truly vibrant, global community and an internationally-renowned institution. Ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 4,000 international students from nearly 150 countries.

Alta Innovations Ltd is the University of Birmingham’s technology transfer company and is responsible for the commercialisation of research undertaken at the University. Alta Innovations links academic research with business through licensing and spinout activity, collaborative research and consultancy projects to generate the new ideas, technologies and processes required to achieve competitive advantage.

The University of Birmingham is using its experience in both commercialising new technologies and in nurturing young companies, to help entrepreneurs and start-ups to transform innovation into enterprise through the new BizzInn incubator, run by the Enterprise Acceleration Team in association with Alta Innovations.

http://www.alta.bham.ac.uk/

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/bizzinn

BizzInn

We would like to invite you to the first networking event to be held at BizzInn, a new business incubator established by the University of Birmingham and hosted by the Birmingham Research Park. BizzInn has been set up to offer free office space and support to innovative start-up enterprises

The event will give you a chance to find out more about how the BizzInn will work, inspect the new facilities on offer and network with entrepreneurs and professional advisers.

We want to use BizzInn to build a dynamic environment around innovative entrepreneurs and we welcome business services providers who want to get involved in this new enterprise in order to support and build networks with the entrepreneur community.

If you are an entrepreneur in the process of getting a new, innovative business off the ground OR if you are a supplier of business services who would like to work with new start up business, please come along to find out more about this initiative and how you can get involved. If you have any contacts or clients who you believe would be interested in finding out about BizzInn, please do feel free to extend this invitation to them.

For more information on BizzInn please have a look at our webpage www.birminghamresearchpark.co.uk/support/bizzinn-innovation-hub/ or contact Catherine Mansell (contact details below).

Event details:

Date: Tuesday 4^th June

Time; 5 – 6.30 pm

Location; Institute of R&D, Birmingham Research Park, Vincent Drive, Edgbaston, B15 2SQ

Light refreshments provided

To RSVP – register at: http://bizzinn.eventbrite.co.uk
We look forward to welcoming you on the 4^th June

Catherine Mansell

Enterprise Development Team

University of Birmingham

Institute of Research and Development

Birmingham Research Park

Vincent Drive

Birmingham

B15 2SQ

tel: 0121 414 4905

mobile: 07986 353469

[email protected]

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Scientists at the University of Birmingham have received funding from the Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s innovation agency, to develop a novel multi action siRNA drug with proven neuroprotective and neuroregenerative activity to treat Glaucoma.