Cases Of Growing Companies
Microlase, Deliverics, SpaceandPeople, Solus Scientific Solutions, Klik2Learn, Affirmints
Microlase
Success at the speed of light
The Microlase story begins with two PhD researchers, Graeme Malcolm and Gareth Maker, moving research out of the University lab (from Prof Allister Ferguson's Photonics group) and into the commercial world of applications for optoelectronics. In 1992, they stepped out of the academic environment to run the commercial operation and within five years Microlase had outgrown the Incubator. There followed an agreement with Coherent Inc, the leading name in lasers, and by 2002 the company had 50 employees and a £7 million turnover and became Coherent Scotland. It has since continued to grow and now employs more than 100 people. In 2005 Graeme and Gareth left Coherent to start up M Squared Lasers, headquartered in Glasgow, with the focus on next generation lasers and photonic instruments. M Squared continues to grow rapidly with products for frontier science and commercial applications and has opened a facility in California.
SUI assisted Microlase with:
Deliverics
Big business thinking at molecular level
Deliverics Ltd is a Scottish-based company producing products and kits that deliver molecules into and onto cells for the world-wide R&D laboratory market. Cellular delivery forms the basis for many areas of research and development in the life sciences and is an important aspect of therapeutic treatment in many diseases. Having started as a spin-out from the University of Edinburgh's Department of Chemistry in April 2010, the company had to secure initial financing to enable the launch of its first product at the Medica International trade fair. That product, SAFEctin™, is designed to efficiently deliver RNA and DNA into cells in a one-step procedure.
SUI helped Deliverics grow, by:
SpaceandPeople
Office space search transforms mall space entrepreneurs
From original idea to start-up to flotation: it’s the ideal curve, and it can be done, as SpaceandPeople have proved (and continue to prove). The Glasgow-based company’s efforts help take marketing campaigns into shopping malls, garden centres, theme parks and airports throughout Britain and beyond. Currently the UK’s No1 provider of promotional space for experiential marketing, and Europe’s leading destination marketing specialists, SpaceandPeople began in 2002 with two people, funded by SUI and Gresham House plc. They now have 75 employees in the UK and Germany, and have expanded into India with 40 employees in eight cities.
SUI helped SpaceandPeople by providing:
Solus Scientific Solutions
Food for thought
Using innovative assays and diagnostic instrumentation, Solus Scientific Solutions Ltd specialises in the rapid detection of food borne pathogens such as salmonella, listeria, e-coli and associated antigens. The company’s patented intellectual property is based on chemistry, immunology and microbiology as well as novel bacteria detection methods. Having sprung from ideas developed by Professor Bill Stimson in Strathclyde University’s Immunology Department, Solus moved into the Incubator in 2007, departing just two years later. Solus now operates from two office locations, with a staff of 22 and a turnover in excess of £3 million. Solus’s sales strategy is targeted at the global microbiological food testing market.
SUI assisted Solus with:
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Klik2Learn
Top class base for interactive learning company
An interactive online learning company serving the UK and overseas markets, Klik2Learn was founded by a Chartered Teacher with over twenty years experience in all sectors of education.
K2L’s vision is to become the premier provider of quality online education in the UK by creating exciting digital content to be used on the company’s cutting edge learning management platform. For the overseas market, the company aims to export its technology and products to the two billion ESOL students worldwide, by providing a method of achieving qualifications in English.
Klik2Learn took advantage of SUI’s
Digital Enterprise Centre support:
Affirmints
How to make a mint (or at least get started)
Affirmints also offer ranges of high quality, inspirational corporate and personal gifts, including luxury confectionery (featuring mints, of course), all of which reinforce the ethos of positivity, self-belief and ‘can do’ thoughts and actions.
SUI helped Affirmints grow, through:
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BBC Business News
- Global markets fall on growth fears
Global stock markets fall after weak Chinese economic data and concerns that the US Federal Reserve may scale back monetary stimulus efforts. - UK first quarter growth unchanged
The UK's economy grew at 0.3% in the first three months of the year, official figures confirm, but concerns remain over the strength of the recovery. - Nissan recalls over 800,000 vehicles
Nissan says it plans to recall about 841,000 vehicles worldwide due to a faulty steering wheel. - Ford to shut Australian production
Ford Motor says it will shut all its Australian manufacturing plants by October 2016, after more than 85 years making cars in the country.
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