New heights for start-up with a fresh approach to drinks

An undergraduate start-up called ZymeDeal is moving towards a patent for their enzyme-coated polymer that keeps drinks fresh at room temperature.

ZymeDeal’s product has both commercial and industrial potential. “Drink preservation is an issue in developing countries where fridges are not common, and in China, where people do not like to drink milk cold,” says Sijia Yu of ZymeDeal.

“For industrial use, we are going to coat the inner surface of containers with our polymer and this can be used at different points of the production line for dairy and drink companies, particularly during the transportation and storage process.”

Juggling the business with their final exams, the team of undergraduates has won a share of the £13,000 prize fund for the China-UK Challenge, a competition for university teams to encourage new business ventures between China and the UK, after finishing third out of 74 teams initially in the Challenge. “Placing third means we should be able to get sufficient funding for our patent application,” says Sijia. “The main goal now is to get a patent approved as soon as possible.”

ZymeDeal’s team also won the 2014 FoNS-MAD competition, a competition for undergraduate students in the Faculty of Natural Sciences, working in teams to develop low-cost technology that would have an impact on Society.

As well as conducting further experiments to produce enough data for their patent application, the team has been increasing their knowledge of business through a six-week course as part of the Venture Catalyst Challenge at Imperial. 

“We’ve been conducting market research and learning about business models. During the Venture Catalyst Challenge, we established connections with three companies who showed interest in our products and might be able to collaborate in the future.”

In addition, the team has won funding and business mentorship from Climate-KIC, a European initiative. This equates to £3,500 in funding for future experiments and three hours a month with a business mentor, guiding them in market research.

If you would like to offer support or discuss the role you could play in helping the College achieve its goals, please contact Patrick Stewart on 020 7594 2667 or Seema Jagdev on 020 7594 5313.