A new competition sponsored by NESTA that hand-picks emerging technology entrepreneurs and puts them through a rigorous business planning and skills development programme to prepare them for investment has announced its first winner – a radical new means of diagnosing cancer...

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Michelson Diagnostics Ltd, from Chislehurst, received an award worth £15,000 for its novel laser-scanning imaging technology that will remove the need for a painful, time-consuming surgical biopsy to diagnose cancer in human organs like the cervix and lungs.

The team behind Michelson Diagnostics Ltd entered into the competition with only a preliminary market understanding and an un-developed business model. They completed the programme as overall winners and with a further £200,000 of investment pledged to their business from corporate sponsors. They are actively seeking further funding to complete their seed funding.

Intensive business support packages

The Faraday Partnerships Investment Competition is sponsored by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and the DTI (Department for Trade and Industry) and run by Enterprise Accelerator and Sira. The competition is also supported by Grant Thornton and Thumped Ltd.

It brings together companies from the 24 Faraday Partnerships and puts the most commercially viable through intensive, individualised business support programmes using the proven Enterprise Accelerator Process.

This helps developing companies get ready for investment by producing a robust business plan and empowers entrepreneurs with the skills to go out and pitch confidently to their markets. The eventual winners receive £10,000 in cash and support worth £5,000 from business and financial advisers Grant Thornton, who will also offer the non-winning finalists support worth £2,500. This support will take the form of accounting as well as tax and business advice.

Twenty organizations made it through to the semi-finals of the competition all of which gained invaluable business skills during the first phase of Enterprise Accelerator support; this shortlist was then brought down to four finalists.

Performance metrics impact on participant companies' business models

The performance metrics of the 20 companies that have gone through the Enterprise Accelerator process are already very encouraging. In only an eight week period, nine companies have learnt enough to radically alter their business models based on their own improved skills and business understanding, and eight are either starting pilots with customers or at the advanced stages of developing a pilot.

In the words of one entrepreneur “When we started, our business model was to finish the product and hope that someone found us and bought it. The Enterprise Accelerator Process enabled us to identify our customers & work out how to sell to them the benefits, which led to the customers funding and supporting us even before the product was finished …it delivered tangible results”

Radically new approach to mentoring

Mark White, Director of Invention and Innovation at NESTA, said: “NESTA exists to support innovation in the UK. Through our early stage seed investment and Enterprise Accelerator’s successful support process we offer innovative young companies the best chance of growing their business. We believe that the Enterprise Accelerator Process is excellent, offering a whole new approach to mentoring that is already showing effective results, to the point that we are looking to train up to ten of our existing mentors in the process.”

Dr John Millar, the founder of Enterprise Accelerator, said: “This whole process is entrepreneur-driven; everything that we teach the finalists is integral to making their businesses successful. What has been most satisfying is that all of the entrepreneurs involved in the competition have been really positive about the process, regardless of whether they made it to the final. Of the four finalists, three of them have already started pilots, an amazing achievement, and I am confident that all of those involved will leave with a stronger business model and be more likely to achieve a successful business as a result.”

Jon Holmes, CEO and founder of winning company Michelson Diagnostics (www.md-ltd.co.uk), said: “We found the investment readiness training that we received during the course of the Faraday Investment Competition to be immensely useful in honing our business plans and ‘elevator pitch’, and we now hold a number of offers of funding as a result. I strongly recommend the Enterprise Accelerator process to all would be entrepreneurs.”

The finalists were: Imetab, who are developing a laser scanning ophthalmoscope; PJH Partnership who have developed a device to allow instant soil sampling and analysis; Biotronics 3D for its software that allow data from MRI scans to be viewed in 3D on a standard personal computer and shared across the internet, and Michelson Diagnostics Ltd (www.md-ltd.co.uk).

About NESTA:
NESTA aims to be the strongest single catalyst for innovation in the UK. In everything it does, it is seeking to increase the UK’s capacity to fulfil its vast innovative potential. Through a range of pioneering programmes, it invests at every stage of the innovation process; providing early stage seed capital for promising ideas for new products and services; investing in UK talent to ensure it stays in the UK; and experimenting with new ways of engaging the public in science, technology and the creative industries.

About Faraday Partnerships:
Faraday Partnerships are dedicated to improving the competitiveness of UK industry through more effective interaction between the science and technology base and industry. Effective interaction requires the identification of industry needs and the subsequent synthesis of the knowledge and experience of those who can satisfy these needs. Crucially, each Faraday Partnership employs a number of technology translators - people with broad experience of knowledge transfer - who can facilitate projects between Partnership members.

Enterprise Accelerator:
www.enterpriseaccelerator.co.uk

Grant Thornton UK LLP:
www.grantthornton.co.uk

Thumped:
www.thumped.co.uk