Since 2007, Innovate UK has invested around £2.5bn to help businesses across the country to innovate, with match funding from industry taking the total value of projects above £4.3bn.
Innovate UK has helped 8,500 organisations create around 70,000 jobs and added an estimated £18bn of value to the UK economy. In the period 2019/2020, Innovate UK received 5,794 applications for grant funding and made 949 awards. £645,886 was awarded in terms of grant funding, 24% of the total amount applied for.
Better Lemon Consulting Limited Industry Sector: Hospitality Sector
Better Lemon Consulting Limited, a London based company, has applied to Innovate UK for grant funding to support a collaborative R&D project where the aim is to improve and extend the reach of a digital online platform called the Growth Works Network to assist hoteliers, hospitality workers, hospitality students, alumni and universities in developing sustainable solutions to Covid-19 recovery.
Better Lemon states that hospitality businesses can only survive the pandemic by adapting and finding new sources of revenues, significantly cutting costs and improving sustainability and efficiency, and their innovation is aimed at the recovery of hospitality and travel, with a focus on environmental sustainability.
The solution exists today as a service, and is popular with users and organisations in trial. This project will convert this service into an improved, innovative online platform. The next phase of growth, to access the addressable market of 3.2m hospitality workers in the UK, plus 100s of universities with hospitality students and alumni & hotel chains, is to develop an online platform where mentees and mentors come together, exchange and develop sustainable solutions for the COVID-19 recovery.
The application was successful and the project received £174,987 by way of funding.
Beinn Bike Limited Industry Sector: Hospitality Sector
Beinn Bike Limited applied to Innovate UK for grant funding to produce a software product (web and mobile app) that is designed for the masses and encourages active travel. Given the impact of COVID-19 on the UK and the government’s commitment to active travel, there is a need for a tool that inspires people to choose an active lifestyle.
Beinn Bike is developing a product that can automatically create routes for running, cycling and walking, while providing the user with complete confidence that the route it creates is the best one for them. It does this through the application of natural language generation, meaning Beinn can automatically describe any route created anywhere in the world. By working with behavioural science experts, Beinn can also ensure that the route descriptions that they create are designed to maximise user confidence in the route.
Beinn has received £59,964 by way of funding.
Screen Moguls Limited Industry Sector: Hospitality Sector
Screen Moguls Limited, digital marketing experts in London and Los Angeles, applied to Innovate UK for funding to help small cinemas compete in a digital age by giving them access to leading edge marketing technology in a simplified, cost effective way. The tool enables cinemas to engage existing (and potential) movie goers in their area, through channels like Facebook, with no prior knowledge or training required.
The technology is based on location behavioural analysis, and is already proven by large movie studios to be up to six times more effective than using a marketing agency to run digital campaigns. Small cinemas get the same artificial intelligence based marketing methods used by marketing goliaths at a fraction of the cost and complexity. Screen Moguls applied for the funding to expand the product to other verticals, to help support small businesses affected by COVID, with a particular emphasis on independent retail, hospitality and leisure.
This product will allow small business owners to run sophisticated digital marketing campaigns across multiple media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, using geo-targeted and interest based audiences, alongside their proprietary behavioural-based audiences. Screen Moguls received £74,198 by way of funding.
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