Five start-up businesses founded by students and recent graduates from the University of Edinburgh have secured almost half a million pounds in grant funding awards between them.
The five young companies, all supported by the university’s commercialisation service Edinburgh Innovations, have been awarded around £100,000 each through SMART:SCOTLAND grants.
The recipients are smart bin developer bennu.ai; cleantech start-up Danu Robotics; robotic glove business BioLiberty; digital mental health platform eMoodie; and audio design technology company Black Goblin Audio.
Awarded by Scottish Enterprise to Scottish-based SMEs, SMART:SCOTLAND grants are offered to qualifying high-risk projects with a commercial focus.
In addition to providing guidance for the grant applications, Edinburgh Innovations has supported the company founders throughout their entrepreneurial journeys, including helping them to apply for a range of additional national awards.
BioLiberty, Danu Robotics and bennu.ai had all been winners in the Scottish EDGE competition, while eMoodie has secured initial seed investment and been recognised by other business award programmes.
Edinburgh Innovations also supported female-led Black Goblin in developing Subversive - a collaborative audio tool for visual artists and sound designers - towards winning the Creative Edge award from Scottish EDGE, as well as the Resident Entrepreneurs and Connected Innovators awards from the creative technology cluster Creative Informatics.
Student enterprise manager Lorna Baird said: “These start-ups are deserving of their significant funding awards, as they are all focused on developing innovative solutions to some of the key challenges facing society.
“As an organisation which is committed to helping University of Edinburgh-linked start-up businesses reach their full potential, Edinburgh Innovations is proud of its role in supporting these budding entrepreneurs.”
Jim Watson, director of business growth at Scottish Enterprise, said: “SMART:SCOTLAND grants are an effective way of encouraging Scottish businesses to innovate and helping them attract additional funding.
“The cutting-edge products and services being developed by these five companies are great examples of the pioneering work supported by SMART and the economic, environmental and societal benefits associated with the programme.”
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