Moti Me and ACT Medical are among the latest wave of award winners announced by Innovate UK - the UK’s innovation agency - who will receive a combined £6.2 million in grants as they set out to tackle some of our biggest societal challenges.
Alongside financial backing, both ventures will benefit from tailored business support to help accelerate their growth trajectory.
Founded by Katie Michaels (Industrial Design and Technology, 2020), Moti Me is an innovative physiotherapy-focused product to help children with learning and movement disabilities such as cerebral palsy.
Katie was inspired to set up the business by her cousin, who has cerebral palsy. After seeing his struggles when it came to practicing physiotherapy exercises at home, she wanted to create a product to support his development.
Moti Me works by stimulating the development of core physical skills such as coordination, muscle strength, and range of motion through playful interaction.
Joseph Bentley designed REACT (Rapid Emergency Actuating Tamponade) – a device that aims to reduce catastrophic blood loss from a knife or gunshot wound - as part of his Product Design and Technology degree, after seeing the suffering caused by knife crime.
The potential to solve this challenge and save thousands of lives led to the creation of ACT Medical. His vision is that the device will be used by first responders - including paramedics and police officers - to help save lives around the world.
Both Katie and Joseph have received support through º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ’s business incubator programme, LUinc., to develop and grow their businesses.
Based at the Holywell Building at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ Science and Enterprise Park (LUSEP), LUinc. is a part of the º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ Enterprise Network (LEN), which brings together support for entrepreneurial students from across the University to enable founders to develop skills, test ideas and setup and scale businesses.
Incubator Manager, Pete Hitchings, said: “It’s great to see Katie and Joseph progress their businesses, and to see their talent recognised in this way.
“Moti Me and ACT Medical are tackling critical societal challenges, and their success highlights the impactful ventures emerging from our supportive network.”
Katie said: “I am delighted to have won the Unlocking Potential grant and to have been recognised by Innovate UK. We are at a really crucial stage of our journey now where we are developing the product and testing prototypes with special needs children.
“This award and the ongoing support from the LEN will help us to begin finalising our product and progress towards bringing Moti Me to market.”
Joseph said: “We are hugely grateful to Innovate UK for recognising and supporting ACT Medical’s mission to eliminate death from penetrating trauma.”
LUinc. is now taking expressions of interest from people working on startups and social enterprises for their incubator programme.
The programme involves free support for new businesses as they establish. Support packages are worth up to £10,000 and include a founder-focussed shared workspace, mentoring, and cut-price software. Other perks include expert-led workshops and training sessions, potential follow-on funding, and networking opportunities and events.
Anyone interested in finding out more about the programme can visit their website.