Innovation Birmingham Campus announces starting 11

INNOVATION Birmingham Campus’s Low Carbon Incubator Programme has enrolled 11 new start-up businesses.

In addition to receiving a structured programme of support and office premises, each start-up will be able to bid for up to €20,000 of grant funding to take their product to market.

The Low Carbon Incubator is part of the European-wide Climate KIC (Knowledge Innovation Community). It follows on from the 2012 programme, which saw Innovation Birmingham Campus-based Ventive secure £900,000 from its initial funding round. 

The campus was then known as Birmingham Science Park Aston.

The 11 low carbon start-ups comprise: Accommodation Pod, which is a floatable, modular, flexible solution for storage and emergency purposes; Blue Planet Hydrogen, which has designed an advanced hydrogen fuel production and control system; Chimney Sheep which provides an attractive solution to stop drafts from chimneys; Eden IQ which has designed an ultra-efficient infrared heating panel that is cheaper and more efficient than competitor products; Fullgrown Furniture which is ‘growing’ furniture straight from the tree by guiding branches; Heat Genius, which has developed a smart, zone-based home heating system using sensor technology to intelligently heat the home; LEDenergysave which is developing new LED products; Loftzone which provides an innovative solution to using the loft for storage; Powercharge which is a pay-as-you-go plug system; Pyrogen Africa which is a specialist consultancy set up to provide market intelligence on Africa’s renewable energy markets and Solarera which is developing solar energy solutions for the African market. 

Henriette Lyttle-Breukelaar, head of projects at Innovation Birmingham, said: “This is a very exciting cohort of low carbon start-ups, which is a reflection of the rapid growth of the sustainable energy market. It is capturing the interest of serial entrepreneurs, as well as prompting industry professionals to step away from a corporate career path and start their own business.

“The programme is funded and designed to create more diversification within the low carbon sector, which is set to create significant wealth and jobs, especially for a region such as the West Midlands, which has a strong manufacturing base.”

The programme is being run in three phases: business plan preparation, mentoring, hot-desking space and a range of networking opportunities are being made available to all 11 start-up companies.

The businesses that qualify through to the second stage of the programme will receive more specific coaching to achieve investor readiness.