iBoxit, KNEE3D and PfBIO have been named winners at a competition showcasing innovative business ideas at Norwich Research Park.
Left to right: Rosaria Campilongo (PfBIO), Tom Turmezei (KNEE3D) and John Farley (iBoxit) were named winners at the Hothouse Innovation competition 2024 at Norwich Research Park (Image: Chris Ball Photography).
In collaboration with the University of East Anglia (UEA) and The Royal Society, the Innovation Hothouse competition saw eight finalists pitch their innovative ideas to a panel of expert judges.
All were either spin-out or start-up companies founded by researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs or students based on the park campus.
The winners were announced at an event at the end of November and received cash prizes, as well as either a year’s virtual tenancy or a marketing support package – plus specialist mentoring from market experts.
It was the latest in a series of Enterprise events run by Anglia Innovation Partnership, the campus management organisation at Norwich Research Park.
Last year’s winners, TraitSeq, have continued to progress well while being based at Norwich Research Park on the virtual tenancy they won.
TraitSeq CEO Joshua Colmer said: “Winning the Hothouse competition really helped our development as a company. The training we received throughout the competition process significantly improved our pitching skills, which was instrumental in securing Innovate UK funding for our pre-seed round.
“Exposure at – and after – the event connected us with value-adding angel investors, including one who participated in our pre-seed funding round in April 2024.”
Joshua Colmer, co-founder of TraitSeq.(Image: Chris Ball Photography)
TraitSeq is now generating revenue by delivering commercial projects to agri-tech companies while simultaneously developing its own proprietary technology platform. It has expanded both its technical and commercial teams to accelerate growth, supported by commercial revenue, Innovate UK funding and investment.
Joshua continued: “We have continued to grow our network of industry collaborators and customers, which has significantly enhanced our understanding of industry challenges and how our technology can provide solutions. This has also helped us identify high-priority sectors and challenges.
“Looking ahead to 2025, we are considering a funding round in Q2 to accelerate the development of our technology platform and expand our team to increase our capacity for delivering and learning from commercial projects.”
(Image: Chris Ball Photography)
Roz Bird, CEO at Anglia Innovation Partnership, said: “It’s great to see that last year’s Hothouse competition winners, TraitSeq, have made significant progress, supported by their year’s free virtual tenancy and the opportunities to raise their profile, establish new contacts and gain access to funding.
“There is huge potential for brilliant business ideas to emerge from the community we have here at Norwich Research Park and it’s events like this that showcase the very real opportunities to investors.
“Since the first Enterprise Tuesday event in November 2022, we have moved up several levels in terms of performance and ability to deliver,” Roz added. “We continue to attract and retain high-growth businesses and we have nurtured and grown our entrepreneur community.
“With our real estate investment partnership with Vengrove and funding from Greensphere Capital available for some of our start-up and spin-out companies, the future is looking very positive for the Norwich Research Park campus.
“This investment, combined with the growing sense of community, access to specialist facilities and ease of collaboration, will fast-track ideas and maximise the impact of publicly-funded research.”