Thursday, 20 March 2025
An exponential rise in the number of spin-outs and start-up companies from the University of Nottingham has underlined its vital role in driving innovation and economic growth, newly released figures reveal.
The number of spin-out companies launched by the Russell Group university has grown rapidly in the last ten years, compared to the previous decade, positioning Nottingham as a fertile breeding ground for invention and entrepreneurship.
Between 2005 and 2015, eight spin-outs were launched, and in the decade that followed, 2015-25, this figure more than tripled, with 29 companies being added to the portfolio. This substantial increase in spin-out formation is evidence of a thriving eco-system for local growth and prosperity.
Figures from Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) reveal that in addition to its spin-out companies, the university has a current portfolio of 36 staff start-ups, 135 student start-ups and seven social enterprises.
Nottingham is also second in the UK for the turnover of its student start-ups, with its student ventures bringing in more than £400 million for the year 2022/23. The news coincides with a national campaign by Universities UK which shines a spotlight on the billions of pounds worth of local growth and investment resulting from higher-education support. Its campaign, Unis Start Up the UK, highlights how universities drive entrepreneurship across the nation, supporting new enterprises that boost growth, investment, and jobs.
Nationally since 2015, universities have helped create 38,750 companies, with a 70% rise in active firms. Student start-up turnover grew by 757%, investment by 346%, and employment by 177%, reaching 64,384 jobs in 2022-23.
We are supporting UUK’s Unis Start Up the UK campaign because it’s vitally important that the role of universities in supporting regional growth, providing a rich talent pool and supporting inward investment and job creation is recognised.
Professor Rodden added: "Through our expertise and know-how, combined with the world-class research that is synonymous with the University of Nottingham, we have established an eco-system that supports new start-ups and spin outs. Whatever the route to market, and be it led by students and staff or our commercial team, our entrepreneurial spirit and the drive to translate our research and innovation into tangible benefits for society are at the heart of everything we do.”
The University of Nottingham’s Nottingham Technology Ventures team helps turn university research into real-world solutions, through the commercialisation of intellectual property and support to founders. It currently manages a portfolio totalling almost 40 spin-out companies, which are developing cutting-edge, ground-breaking technologies in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture and the environment, digital, and materials and manufacturing.
The university, as part of the eight Midlands Innovation universities, has launched an investment fund, Midlands Mindforge Ltd. Mindforge aims to raise up to £250m to accelerate the commercialisation of the transformational technologies being developed by the spin-out portfolio, further highlighting the potential for driving economic growth across the region and beyond.
Meanwhile, the university’s Ingenuity Lab provides students and alumni with the space and resources to explore their business ideas and start their own enterprises. Based at the Ingenuity Centre on Jubilee Campus, it fosters an innovative community of entrepreneurs, working together to develop ideas, encourage radical innovation and produce exciting new start-ups. Through its Ingenuity impact programme, it has provided £1 million in seed funding to create 489 new ventures to address local social and environmental challenges.
Nottingham’s entrepreneurial graduates are also making an impact, as reflected in a study by PitchBook, a source of data, research, and insights on global capital markets. It analysed 167,000 university alumni from European universities who have successfully founded companies and raised venture capital in the last 10 years. The study revealed 175 of these founders attended the University of Nottingham – which was ranked as a top 10 university in Europe.
Vivienne Stern MBE, Chief Executive of Universities UK said: “The growth in university supported start-ups over the last decade has been a staggering success. We can do more – both to encourage and support new businesses born in our universities, and to ensure that they can remain in the UK and grow here. This is just one of the ways that our universities can put their shoulders to the wheel with government to achieve stronger growth. Of course, they need to be on a firm financial footing to do this.
“Universities provide a foundation for economic growth through the knowledge exchange they conduct, and the graduates they educate. Few people know that they also work closely with businesses to help them grow too. Using their kit and equipment, and their expertise, they support start-ups, generate their own spin out companies, and work with businesses from the wider economy to provide practical assistance to help them grow.”
As part of the national campaign UUK will be featuring Nottingham spin-out company Neurotherapeutics, which is developing a wrist device that uses electrical pulses to reduce tics in individuals with Tourette’s, based on University of Nottingham research which was the brainchild of academics in its School of Psychology.
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Case Studies
Neurotherapeutics Ltd is a University of Nottingham spin-out launched to bring to market a wearable neuromodulation device (rhythmic peripheral nerve stimulation), worn like a wristwatch, for use in Tourette Syndrome (TS) and associated co-occurring brain health conditions.
The company uses research from scientists from the University’s School of Psychology and School of Medicine that used repetitive trains of stimulation to the median nerve (MNS) at the wrist to entrain rhythmic electrical brain activity - known as brain-oscillations - that are associated with the suppression of movements. They found that rhythmic MNS is sufficient to substantially reduce tic frequency and tic intensity, and the urge-to-tic, in individuals with TS.
Funding for Neurotherapeutics Ltd was coordinated by Nottingham Technology Ventures with investment by the University of Nottingham alongside a number of external investors. Paul Cable helped the University to spin out the company, now trading as Neupulse, and has led as CEO since February 2021.
The company’s technology utilises UoN research and clinical trial results to develop innovative products that are non-invasive and effective in treating the symptoms of Tourette’s. They are becoming ever closer to patient use after being recommended in draft guidance by NICE, marking the first time a NICE committee has recommended digital therapies for these conditions.
Student start up HungryPanda was founded when When Kelu Liu (Computer Science and Management, 2016) arrived in Nottingham, and found it difficult to access authentic Chinese food.
That gap in the market sparked an idea that would eventually become HungryPanda, the London-based food delivery platform dedicated to serving overseas Chinese communities. Now, almost ten years on from that initial idea, HungryPanda has over six million users worldwide and has raised $275m in capital investment.
That first step was bolstered by the university's entrepreneurial ecosystem, particularly the Ingenuity Lab, which provided crucial early support. The venture received early validation when it won the Vice Chancellor's Entrepreneurial Potential Prize at Ingenuity17, providing Kelu and his team with an early boost to their young business.
Within three years of launching, the company had expanded into France, New Zealand, the US and Australia, and in February 2020, HungryPanda raised $20m of funding from investors. But it was the events of March that year which led to the biggest growth for the app - the Covid-19 pandemic saw demand for food delivery services surge, and HungryPanda was well placed to provide home comforts for the millions of people worldwide experiencing lockdowns.
The platform now serves as a vital link between Asian restaurants and overseas communities, helping traditional establishments navigate the digital economy while providing customers with authentic cuisine from home. Kelu’s aim is to be the go-to platform for overseas Chinese communities worldwide. Today, HungryPanda employs more than 1,000 people.
The University of Nottingham spin-out company Cerca Magnetics Limited (Cerca was formed in partnership with UK company Magnetic Shields Limited (MSL) to bring the world’s most advanced functional brain scanner to market.
The Cerca Scanner is the world’s first “wearable” magnetoencephalography (MEG) system, allowing patients to move freely during the scan and offering unprecedented insights on brain development and function and severe neurological illnesses, such as epilepsy.
Conventional MEG scanners are static and cumbersome in order to accommodate super-cooled magnetic field detectors, which are hard to operate close to the head. It cannot adapt to different head shapes and sizes and patients must remain still for long periods.
The Cerca system uses quantum sensors called optically pumped magnetometers or OPMs that do not require cryogenic cooling. These sensors are also lightweight and similar in size to a Lego brick, which means they can be mounted in a helmet which the patient wears. The helmet can ostensibly adapt to any head shape or size, and because it is lightweight and moves with the head, it is largely insensitive to motion. No thermally insulating gap between scalp and sensor is required, allowing the sensors closer to the head to capture higher amplitude signal and better data.
The scanner opens up exciting possibilities for imaging babies and children. Neurological disorders, like epilepsy, often strike in young children and this new system will provide new information to medical professionals which they can use in treatment planning.
The University of Nottingham research team is led by Professor Matt Brookes and Professor Richard Bowtell of the School of Physics and Astronomy and is based in the Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre.
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 24 in Europe and 15th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the third most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2024 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
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