Welcome to the
WE Innovate 2024
Grand Final
Welcome
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the tenth Grand Final of WE Innovate, Imperial’s flagship programme for women entrepreneurs.
This has been another fiercely competitive year with a cohort of 25 teams, working across a range of ground-breaking topics.
Underpinning WE Innovate this year has been the generous support of our sponsors, and I would like to personally thank Santander Universities and Michelmores LLP for their time and contribution in making this year’s WE Innovate programme happen.
This year’s programme was also made possible through philanthropy, and I would like to thank Alexsis de Raadt St James and the Althea Foundation as well as our other donors for their generosity.
I would also like to thank the members of the Imperial Venture Mentoring Service (IVMS) and other volunteers from across Industry for contributing to the investor and selection judging panels and helping to select our finalists.
If watching tonight’s pitches inspires you to help support the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs from Imperial College London that are working to change the world, tonight is the perfect opportunity to get involved. We have plans to scale WE Innovate and would love you to join us in our journey to make this happen!
I would be happy to discuss partnerships, collaborations or sponsorship opportunities with the Enterprise Lab. Please contact me via email ([email protected]) or find me at the networking reception if you’re interested in helping the future innovators of the Imperial College London.
Now, on with the show!
Sarah Ranchev-Hale
Head of Imperial Enterprise Lab
[email protected]
The Prizes
£15,000
£7,000
£5,000
4th & 5th Prize
£1,500 each
Additional Prizes
In addition to the cash prizes above, these additional prizes will also be awarded to 3 semi-finalist teams from the WE Innovate 2024 cohort.
The Finalists
Bia is an at-home uterine contraction monitoring patch to facilitate evidence-led, collaborative decision making between pregnant women and healthcare providers.
Unlocking the ability to preserve the value of fruits throughout the supply chain.
The world’s first smart health assistant for digestive tracking to manage bowel incontinence.
Bio-degradable packaging for temperature-sensitive medicine, ensuring delivery of life saving drugs to underserved communities.
Wearable intervention to proactively prevent musculoskeletal injuries and improve rehabilitation.
The Judges
Professor Mary Ryan
Read Bio
Mary Ryan, Vice Provost for Research and Enterprise at Imperial, is a distinguished leader in materials science. Recognised with a CBE and Fellowships in prestigious academies. She has published over 200 papers and graduated over 50 PhD students in the area of electrochemical materials science. Ryan‘s career exemplifies excellence in interdisciplinary research. Her strategic vision shapes Imperial’s research and impact agenda, supporting its mission to address complex global challenges through convergence science approaches.
Dame Kate Bingham
Read Bio
Kate co-leads SV’s biotech franchise which has a long history of building high value, successful new companies developing transformational new medicines and bringing drugs from discovery to market. Kate’s investments, many of which are examples of SV’s company creation approach to biotech investing, include a wide range of drug discovery and development companies focused on different clinical areas in companies in the UK, EU and US.
In 2021 Kate was awarded a DBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for her services as Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, where she led a team of world-class experts with the shared purposed of finding and manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines.
Outside of SV, Kate serves on the Board of the Francis Crick Institute and ARIA. At weekends Kate spends time in Wales where she rides horses and mountain bikes, grows vegetables and competes in bog snorkelling competitions.
Alexsis de Raadt St James
Read Bio
In addition to her professional roles, she is the founder of The Althea Foundation which has funded 28 initiatives in the mental health, science and education sector and is the recipient of a Commendation from Scotland Yard for software design and social impact. Alexsis founded and provided the initial funding for WE Innovate tech accelerator at Imperial College, 2014-present. Was a US-UK Fulbright Commissioner, board member Oxford Foundry 2018-2022, and currently serves on the advisory board of The Oxford Internet Institute and Oxford AI Society.
The Host
Reya El-Salahi
Presenter, Reporter, and Broadcast Journalist
Read Bio
The Keynote
Anneliese Dodds
Labour and Co-operative Candidate for Oxford East for the 2024 General Election
Read Bio
Anneliese is the Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equaliities and Labour and Co-operative Candidate for Oxford East for the 2024 General Election.
Anneliese was first elected as the Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament for Oxford East in 2017. She currently serves as Party Chair and Chair of the National Policy Review. Prior to that, she served as the first woman Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Anneliese represented Oxford from 2014 to 2017 as our MEP. In that role, Anneliese served on the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, focusing especially on clamping down on tax avoidance by big companies. She was also responsible for tightening rules on financial services, to help prevent any repeat of the global financial crisis. Before becoming an MEP, Anneliese worked for many years as an academic. She also chaired a local debt and welfare advice centre.
Anneliese was first elected in June 2017, and was made Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury in July 2017. While in this role Anneliese developed Labour’s ‘Fair Tax Programme’, the Party’s tax avoidance proposals put forward at the 2019 general election.
The Sponsors
Santander Universities
Santander Universities is the leading global supporter of higher education. We believe that universities are the cornerstone of modern civilisation, nurturing and producing the innovators, creatives and leaders of tomorrow.Through the Universities programme we’re building on Santander UK’s purpose to help people and businesses prosper by providing funding and resources to help students and graduates start, run or scale a business.
www.santander.co.uk/universities
Michelmores
Michelmores is delighted to support the WE Innovate award winner through our MiVentures programme of legal support for ambitious early stage businesses – to help make growth a reality. Michelmores is a proud signatory to the Investing in Women Code and commits to adopting internal practices to improve female entrepreneurs’ access to finance, tools, resources they need to grow their business.