Our Start-up businesses

Get inspired by the businesses started by former students at the University.

Over 260 MEC-supported businesses are still active: employing over 1,000 and generating over £50M in turnover. External investment in these businesses is more than £6.4 million.

In the last year, 37 new start-ups were created.

Recent Start-up News

• Bright Biotech raised £2.5M through attending the EIT Food Seedbed programme and was one of the nine teams selected for the 2022 Global Incubator Programme - Gateway to Asia, powered by GROW, Innovate UK, Innovate UK EDGE North, and British Chamber of Commerce Singapore (BritCham);
• Praeferre won the TiE Silicon Valley innovative solution award and was selected by Innovate UK (UKRI) to participate in GBIP – South Korea Smart City Programme, along with the founder receiving an Outstanding Talent Visa;
• Earlea DX - raised £300k for early stage lung cancer detection and has built partnerships with three leading hospitals in the UK and Singapore, pitched successfully at global level in the UK and China, and secured interest from three Venture Capital funds;
• Precious MD – raised £400k from Innovate UK and VC funds, founder won TIE UK Pioneering Women competition and going forward to global final in Hyderabad, along with receiving an Outstanding Talent Visa;
• Urban Chain – has been awarded a grant of  £430k through the Government’s Net Zero Innovation Portfolio;
• Recourse AI -  received £3.5m from Northern Gritstone and other northwest funders, for Recourse AI an AI-powered virtual training, which is addressing staffing pressures, the pace of innovation and continuous learning demands in life sciences;
• Foodinjoy – the app won Gold at prestigious Muse Creative Awards from over 6000 entries;
• Bounceback Food - following the MEC Showcase Event, alumni (Tony Ford) invested £200k;
• Arcube – produced a non-fungible token (NFT) collection for Etihad Airways;
• Bundlee – now offering Stella McCartney babywear on its baby clothing rental subscription site.

Alumni success stories