INSIGHTS / News

To celebrate SETsquared’s 20^th anniversary, we hosted an Awards Celebration night to honour companies supported by SETsquared and have had a significant social, environmental, and economic impact.

Congratulations go to four Scale-Up members who were amongst the awardees on the night – The Washing Machine Project, Ultraleap, Ecomar and MOLE.

Find out more about the Scale-Up winners:

The Washing Machine Project
The Washing Machine Project has improved nearly 27,000 lives and has worked to solve some of the world’s most pressing humanitarian and development challenges. It has reached low-income communities in India, Mexico, and Iraq, just to name a few, with its Divya Manual Washing Machine. The machine requires no power source and saves up to 50% of the water and 75% of the time compared to manual handwashing. thewashingmachineproject.org

Ultraleap
Ultraleap began as a student start-up and now evolved into a fully-fledged scaling business. This company has become a significant player in the haptics space – powering the next wave of human potential and creating the world’s most advanced hand tracking. No controllers. No wearables. No touchscreens. Just natural interaction. They have created the next generation of interfaces with the world’s biggest brands, such as PepsiCo, LEGO, Skoda, and Qualcomm.

They have created real economic and social impact by tirelessly pushing the boundaries of technology whilst continuing to emphasise their corporate social responsibilities, creating a number of highly-skilled jobs for Bristol and its surrounding areas. ultraleap.com

MOLE
MOLE is helping us drive to an all-electric future by developing a fully autonomous, robotic vehicle charging device which will enable electric vehicles to charge without cumbersome wiring. Users simply park over the “MOLE” to connect autonomously to the charger.

They are working with top-tier commercial fleet operators to accelerate their transition to electric mobility – not only will this have a significant positive impact on air quality and help the UK achieve its net zero ambitions. mole.energy

Ecomar
If all marine vessels currently in operation were a nation-state, they would be the 6th most polluting nation in the world. Ecomar has declared a purpose to remove 10 million tonnes of that pollution in the next ten years. They will drastically cut carbon emissions by creating innovative batteries and hydrogen-electric powertrains. ecomarpropulsion.com

The awards night culminated a day of 20th-anniversary celebrations, which had begun with the annual investment showcase at Church House in Westminster, at which 39  SETsquared-backed start-ups and scale-ups pitched for investment to an audience of 200+ investors.

The Showcase and Awards coincided with the launch of Warwick Economic and Development’s independent SETsquared Impact Report, which estimates that between 2002 – 2022, the total GVA contribution of businesses supported by SETsquared is £15.7bn and that these companies created 15,600 jobs.

Download the Impact Report