11 low-carbon startups join BSP’s Venture Support Program

The busy folks at the UK's Birmingham Science Park never seem to sit still. Word has just reached us that 11 new low-carbon ventures have qualified for Birmingham Science Park’s Venture Support program. That means they'll receive mentoring, customized support, access to markets, and some serious money --up to €20,000 of European funding -- to get them off the ground.

Nine startups  have been enrolled so far at BSP. Not all are from Birmingham --some of the companies are moving there to take advantage of Birminghams Green Deal initiative. The other two ventures are being developed by local Birmingham companies.

One of the startups in the Venture Support program --Ventive-- stands out because it beat competition from Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland and Hungary to make it to the final of a European-wide Climate KIC Venture competition where a prize of €40,000 is at stake. Ventive has developed a heat recovery system requiring no moving parts or energy, and instead relies on the recovery of passive heat, which the system replaces with fresh air. Their product is currently undergoing market testing. BSP's Henriette Lyttle and Birmingham City councillor James McKay are shown here with the Ventive chimney. Ventive gets to compete in the finals for the €40k in Italy later this month.

Some of the other low-carbon start-ups are

• Greenhill Sustainability - a sustainable construction consulting firm;
• Richard Sowden and Co, which is developing software to help companies to deliver green strategies;
• Mars Recycling, which has a plastics recycling solution;
• Poikos, which has developed a product to help online clothes shoppers to order the right size garment, reducing returns of ill-fitting apparel;
• Envirolight – a holistic LED consultancy;
• The Water Consultancy, which specialises in water management.
• Magi-led --has novel carbon and graphite panel heater that generates "Infra-Red healthy" heat, is very low maintenance and has a claimed 98 per cent efficient.
• Birmingham Science Park-based LUX TSI is working to  enhance the level of data available to test new low-carbon LED lighting products.

Another initiative of the program is a solar steam methanol prototype, reformed for hydrogen generation, which is being devised by Marcin Khzouz, a University of Birmingham PhD student.

The program is part of the European-wide Climate KIC (Knowledge Innovation Community) which is funded by the European Commission. The other participating regions are Valencia (Spain); Emilia Romagna (Italy); Hessen (Germany); Lower Silesia (Poland) and Central Hungary.

Henriette Lyttle, European Projects Manager at Birmingham Science Park: “The low-carbon entrepreneurs are really benefitting from being part of the Science Park’s wider community of tech entrepreneurs, as there is so much common ground. The wealth of innovation being created here is really exciting and we have everything crossed in the hope that Ventive can win over the judges at the European-wide Venture competition being held in Bologna later this month, where €40,000 is up for grabs. The next step will be to work with all 11 companies to secure contracts from the public and private sector to assist with the drive for Birmingham and the wider region to meet carbon reduction targets.”