Finalists line up for this year's Venture Catalyst Challenge

Last year's VCC Final

Seven Imperial teams are preparing for tonight's hotly contested final of this year's Venture Catalyst Challenge (VCC).

The VCC is the UK’s only broad science and technology focused ‘pre-accelerator’ and consists of a program of workshops, mentoring sessions and networking events.

Run by Imperial Create Lab in partnership with Imperial Innovations, this year’s VCC has seen the students develop ideas and projects on issues such as food security and agriculture and monetising digital music.

Dominic Falcao, Manager, Imperial Create Lab said: “Every year since we launched VCC, the teams have moved closer to the ‘deep science’ core that represents Imperial. This year is no different, with several of our teams solving technical problems that were previously thought of as impossible - from increasing fuel efficiency in hybrid cars to new approaches to audio identification.

“This year’s teams have got out there and had conversations with customers, securing revenue, contracts and pre-orders and showing the sort of commercial nous and courage that few people readily credit scientists and engineers with having.”

This year’s VCC finalists are:

Bionet Agriculture
A new form of waterproof, edible and biodegradable packaging that provides key nutrients for livestock, pets and astronauts.

Cyanofeed
This team have found a way to reduce the volatility of fishmeal prices and create a nutritious feed for the aquaculture industry.

Instatype
A needle-free, point-of-care blood group testing device that is eight times faster than the current model, with the potential to save thousands of lives and millions of litres of rare blood type reserves.

Smarthybrid
This product aims to reduce the fuel consumption and battery size of hybrid vehicles without altering the engine or the user’s experience or adding any new hardware.

Sonalytic
A new audio identification technology which enables rights holders and online platforms, like Spotify, to identify, monitor and monetise music on online platforms.

Tangi0
A new way to interact with electronics replacing complicated controls and sensor based buttons with an flexible touch-sensitive material.

Uquant
A new form of uncertainty quantification that has applications in GPS, finance and even on Mars.

The finalists will be pitching their ideas to a panel of expert judges at this year’s Imperial Showcase in the hope of winning the £10,000 cash prize.

This year’s judges are;

• Kelsey Lynn Skinner, Director, Tech Ventures, Imperial Innovations

• David Gann, Vice-President (Innovation), Imperial

• Andrew Webber, Head of Student Entrepreneurship, Microsoft UK

• David Haynes, Investment and Business Development, Seedcamp.

The event, open to College staff, students and the general public, will take place in the Sir Alexander Fleming building between 18.00 and 21.00.

Tickets to the event are available here