News | September 2026

Student entrepreneurship is one of the most underrated forms of knowledge exchange. Over 40,000 students and recent graduates started a business in the last ten years, raising almost £6bn in investment.

Entrepreneurship at Queen Mary is key to our institutional strategies, equipping our students to create impact regardless of the career path they choose. We see how, in creating companies, our students become confident employable leaders.

The very best of this was on display at London Demo Day, the capital’s showcase of top student startups. Read on to see how Queen Mary entrepreneurs, both student and academic, are creating impact.

Leah Thompson, Director of Entrepreneurship

Student startups showcased at London Demo Day

Recent Queen Mary alumni pitched at London Demo Day, the capital’s showcase of top student startups, hosted this year at Imperial College London.

Orbion Connect, founded by Tristan Derry and Yosha Pathak, is an AI-powered innovation platform connecting HealthTech founders with the right clinical, commercial and regulatory experts to accelerate from idea to scale. Orbion are currently raising a £250k pre-seed round to fund product and business development to scale up.

PLAYBACK, founded by Karim Fawaz, is an award-winning sports tech platform combining cameras, GPS tracking, performance analytics, and AI to open elite athlete development tools to grassroots sports organisations. PLAYBACK will soon be seeking £2m investment to acquire one of their distribution partners.

StoryFoundry AI, founded by Maya Mehrara and Agnese Picchio is an AI-driven communications platform helping charities, social enterprises, and public sector organisations create compelling stories that increase engagement and fundraising outcomes. StoryFoundry are raising £250k pre-seed for business development and to scale up.

Spinouts raising

Six of our spinouts recently featured in Sifted’s reporting of who’s raising.

Nilocas AI, founded by Stephen Greenwald and led by Athar Ali, will be raising a £4m Seed round in 2027 to fund clinical validation and product launch. Nilocas is a non-invasive chest patch that detects coronary artery disease by capturing and analysing sounds and vibrations produced by the heart.

ReFleks, founded by Suzanne Eldridge and Francesco Dell’Accio, are raising a £26m Series A. ReFleks is developing a regenerative therapy, delivered via a single injection, to repair damaged cartilage and treat osteoarthritis rather than simply manage its symptoms.

EcoBarrier Ltd, founded by Colin Crick and Emma Sadler, are preparing for a £5m investment round. EcoBarrier has developed a superhydrophobic coating that repels water and oil, designed to replace plastic linings in food and drinks packaging.

Nemisindo, founded by Joshua Reiss, are raising a £1m Seed round. Nemisindo builds procedural audio technology that generates game sound effects in real time.

Procyon Diagnostics, founded by Tatjana Crnogorac-Jurcevic and led by Tony Cooke, are raising a £1m Seed round. Procyon Diagnostics is developing early-detection tests for cancer, starting with a pancreatic cancer test that analyses biomarkers from both blood and urine.

AeroSolar, founded by Joe Briscoe, will be raising a £5m+ Seed round in 2027 to manufacture production-scale equipment. AeroSolar has developed an “aerosol annealing” process that improves the yield of perovskite solar cell production lines, addressing a scaling bottleneck for manufacturers trying to move beyond the efficiency ceiling of conventional silicon cells.

New industry partnerships

Prof Jan Mol and Prof Joshua Reiss have been awarded Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chairs to build world-leading research groups with industry.

Jan Mol will work with Paragraf to develop a new generation of graphene-enabled components for quantum computing and sensing. Jan’s research group will lay the foundations for Britain’s graphene quantum electronics industry.

Joshua Reiss will work with Yamaha Corporation to investigate and deliver intelligent systems for sound engineering, focusing on intelligent tools that enhance creativity, quality and productivity. Such technologies assist professionals and automate technical tasks for amateurs, supporting the creators’ vision and enabling high-quality audio content across many domains.

What’s next for London Social Ventures

London Social Ventures is joining with ImpactU. Following a successful pilot led by Queen Mary, UCL and wide consortium of London universities, LSV will become the first regional hub of ImpactU’s growing UK-wide network. This is an exciting next step for the university social ventures ecosystem, with enormous potential for supporting economic growth and sustainable impact.

Ones to watch

Amber Therapeutics named a Future Fifty scaleup to watch. Tech Nation Future Fifty is Britain’s most prestigious late-stage growth programme, having helped over a third of UK unicorns. Amber Therapeutics, co-founded by Charles Knowles, are developing and delivering breakthrough neuromodulation therapies that can fundamentally transform outcomes in areas of unmet clinical need.

EduGrade AI Ltd joins ICURE spinout readiness programme. Founded by Dr. Deepshikha, EduGrade are developing AI-assisted marking with full human oversight. Designed for schools, colleges, and universities of all sizes, EduGrade AI gives educators their time back without taking their judgement away. The underlying research has been shortlisted for the Learning Assessment Award at the 2026 QS Reimagine Education Awards.