Strathclyde Business SchoolStephen Young Institute for International Business

Genna Masterton, The Gifted Kind CIC (Community Interest Company). £5k Grant, June 2023

The Gifted Kind is a digital training and learning platform for the early years education sector designing courses, resources and an accreditation framework for world-class happiness and wellbeing practice.

"The grant will help successfully build the assets to take our idea to market and develop the commercial road map to become a scalable, sustainable, profitable enterprise. This funding is crucial to begin embarking on our journey with developers and early-adopters, to co-design and build a first version of our digital product - an MVP. It will also allow the activation of our rebrand back out into the world so we can have a voice and generate an audience for our future sales pipeline and secure support from all stakeholders surrounding our mission".

Adam Neilson, Rivum Ltd. £5K Grant, June 2023

Rivum is on a mission is to empower managers and leaders to support good mental wellbeing in the workplace by helping employees understand and manage their own mental wellbeing, providing data and insights across the business, and leading by example as a caring and successful company.

"This funding, along with the training, learning and networking opportunities that Inspire facilitates, will be a massive help to us as we work towards raising our first round of external funding. We’re currently building out the front end of our employee mental wellbeing platform and this grant will help fund our UX/UI design and testing to make sure Rivum is as helpful as possible for users on day".

Kimia Witte, Vertical Forrest CIC (Community Interest Company). £5k Grant June 2023

Vertical Forest is a R&D environment for pioneering nature-inspired solutions through co-engineering with living microorganisms. Its premier project, aptly named after the company, focuses on the development of a living paint. This paint incorporates microorganisms like lichen capable of not only absorbing carbon dioxide from the surroundings but also enhancing the durability of the structures it coats.

The funding will be used to register the company as a limited entity, covering expenses for marketing animation, website development, infographics, and an incubator prototype for lichen growth.

Scott Black, Claymore Surgical Ltd. £5k Grant, January 2023

Claymore Surgical Ltd is a Scottish startup company which designs and develops novel medical devices in collaboration with surgeons and clinicians within the NHS. The clinicians identify the problems, and Claymore Surgical designs the solutions. Once the device design is finalised, the company aim is to license or sell the intellectual property to larger medical device organisations. Presently, Claymore Surgical is focused on two projects, both of which involve paediatric airway management (diagnosis of sleep apnoea via machine learning/artificial intelligence, and removal of aspirated foreign bodies via flexible bronchoscopy).  

 

This grant will permit us to prototype our current device design for the removal of aspirated foreign bodies. Specifically, we will buy the raw materials and supply these to the Medical Device Manufacturing Centre who are assisting with prototype development. All proof-of-concept results will be utilised to go for additional grant funding and investment.

Irina Protasova Del Villar, Baby Ready Finance Ltd. £5k Grant, January 2023

BabyReady is a financial platform designed to make prenatal and childcare costs transparent and help parents to financially prepare for having a baby. The platform educates parents about benefits and financial support available to them by providing budgeting tools, creating a money timeline, and also information about governmental support. BabyReady helps parents to open a savings or investment account, boost their deposit with government bonuses and build tax-efficient savings for education and housing.

The grant funding we have received as an Accelerator participant has made all the difference, allowing us to pay for the necessary legal expenses and move forward with confidence. It is not just financial support, but a boost of encouragement, enabling us to focus on growing our business and creating an impact in the market. We are extremely grateful for this opportunity and excited to see where it takes us.