The Grant Landscape: Reaching £100,000 of Funding
Grab your snorkel and dive in as we explore how to navigate the waters of innovation using grants.
Sailing Through Grant Opportunities:
Let's take a closer look at how Lylo has navigated the grant landscape, securing funding at various stages of our journey:
Global Redbull Basement Contest 2020: We won our first 3D printer, laptop, and phone, which helped kickstart the development of our first physical model, demonstrating the concept of our machine at TRL2.
Riding the Wave of Progress:
Over the past three years, we've transformed our initial idea for Lylo from a mere ripple at Technology Readiness Level 1 (TRL1) to a mighty wave, currently crashing in at a TRL5. This journey has been fuelled by £100,000 of funding from various grants and accelerators, each serving as a buoy to keep us afloat and propel us forward.
Tools of the Trade:
As a startup in clean-tech development, we've relied on two main tools to steer our ship through the choppy waters of R&D. The first tool is the Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), guiding our progression from concept to final manufactured form. These levels provide a roadmap for our journey and serve as a beacon for investors and funders, signalling the stage of development we've reached.
The second tool in our arsenal is a prioritisation matrix, helping us target and tackle the key assumptions holding us back at each TRL. This tool is like a life preserver, keeping us focused on smaller increment goals amidst the vast ocean of possibilities.
Brunel Venture Contest in 2021: Securing £5,000 enabled us to set up our company, file design rights, and begin building a digital model and basic bill of materials at TRL2.
Central Research Lab Accelerator in 2021: With another £5,000, we conducted user research, built prototypes, and tested assumptions, advancing to TRL3.
Young Innovators Grant in 2022: £5,000 helped us develop filtration technology, fund brand development, and secure our trademark, advancing further in TRL3.
Undaunted Imperial Accelerator in 2022: With £20,000, we conducted market research, completed a product life cycle analysis, and tested our filtration system, pushing us closer to TRL4.
RTO Catapult Grant in 2022: £15,000 facilitated collaboration with the Manufacture Technology Centre to compile market data and prototype tests into a final unit specification, mapping out a manufacturing roadmap.
Women in Innovation Grant in 2023: Securing £50,000 enabled us to collect detailed user data, integrate prototypes into a singular unit, and develop a fidelity model ready for testing, reaching TRL5.
Our advice for growing startups is to make sure that each pool of money tests an assumption. The pockets of money start out small, but make sure to tailor the outputs to position you well for the next step.
Innovation Competitions - Innovate UK
