UFraction8 Scoops Murgitroyd Innovator Launchpad Award
July 13 2017 - 7:26AM
Business Wire
Murgitroyd, the global intellectual property attorney firm, has
awarded first prize of £5,000 cash to Scotland-based start-up
uFraction8 in its first Innovator Launchpad competition.
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Dr Brian Miller and Dr Monika Tomecka
celebrating their prize (Photo: Business Wire).
In an award ceremony at The Dome, Edinburgh, co-founders of the
Falkirk-based microfluidics company, Dr Brian Miller and Dr Monika
Tomecka, were presented with the £5,000 winner’s cheque together
with a £2,500 intellectual property services voucher from
Murgitroyd, custom Beta Brand space jackets and a PR package.
The UK-wide innovation competition was launched by Murgitroyd in
May 2017 in a drive to support early-stage businesses, and is based
on Facebook.
The initial “top three” were decided in a public Facebook vote,
with these three then going through to a formal judging process,
with experts including Converge Challenge founder Dr Olga
Kozlova.
Winner uFraction8’s technology centres on a new liquid particle
processing technology which offers superior performance and cost
savings against the three big liquid processing technologies:
filtration, flow centrifugation and flocculation. The company is a
spin-out from Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University.
The technology has multiple applications including enhancing
food security, increasing access to medicines and nutrients,
preserving ocean life and enhancing operational capabilities of
humanitarian aid missions.
UFraction8 has won a number of awards recently, including the
high-profile Imagine Chemistry Challenge, run by AkzoNobel. Through
this, a strategic partnership has just been announced been
uFraction8 and AkzoNobel.
The company has also achieved equity funding through the Deep
Science Ventures business accelerator programme and further
non-diluting grant funding is lined up through Scottish
Enterprises’s SMART Feasibility scheme.
Dr Miller, the company’s CEO, a former automation engineer who
retrained in microfluidics, described the award as a “great helping
hand”. “It’s not just the cash, but also the intellectual property
advice provided by Murgitroyd that will come in useful: this will
help us to assess the value we can add to the company through
intellectual property”.
Dr Tomecka, uFraction8’s Chief Operating Officer, a biomedical
researcher with experience in marketing and team management
commented that the company had ambitious plans for expansion and
that they were seeking investors. She and Miller believe that both
of these objectives will be helped by the publicity from the
competition.
UFraction8 fought off serious competition from other UK
start-ups to win the prize with 35 other early-stage businesses
entering the competition.
Innovator Launchpad judge Keith Jones, Director – Patents with
Murgitroyd, commented on the high standard of competition entries:
“As a patent attorney, I deal with innovation day in day out, and I
have to say I was very impressed with the quality of the entries”.
Jones described uFraction8’s entry as “seriously disruptive
technology”.
Jamie LeLiever, Chief Marketing Officer with Murgitroyd, was
keen to stress the importance of professional services help
alongside cash support for early-stage businesses: “As an
entrepreneur myself, with experience of founding my own businesses
in the US, I know that it’s not just the cash that counts.
“Young companies need advice, and companies like Murgitroyd can
assist with that – we will also be opening up the competition to
other professional services sponsors in the next phase, in order to
increase the range of advice available to companies.
“Innovator Launchpad will be back in 2017, and we will have some
exciting new developments to announce. We’ve taken on feedback from
this competition’s competitors and aim to streamline it further in
the next phase.
“So look out for news of Innovator Launchpad 2.0 in the early
Autumn on our Facebook page – we look forward to supporting more
young companies in the UK!”.
Web Links
uFraction8 website: ufraction8.com
Innovator Launchpad Facebook page:
facebook.com/innovatorlaunchpad
Facebook Live winner’s interview:
facebook.com/TheScotsmanNewspaper/videos/10156953400574988
Murgitroyd website: murgitroyd.com
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170713005536/en/
MurgitroydContact:
Fiona McKenzie, European Marketing ManagerTel: +44 (0)141
307 8400Email: fiona.mckenzie@murgitroyd.com
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