Innovate UK offers £8 million to 13 businesses

13 businesses working on the challenges of population growth, accelerating urbanisation and climate change have been offered Innovate UK’s first innovation loans.

Innovate UK has offered £8 million to 13 businesses developing innovative solutions for the UK’s urban infrastructure, energy and transport challenges. The 13 businesses compete in a new global smart infrastructure market, estimated to be worth £1.2 trillion per year by 2025.

The companies applied into a competition which looked for innovative businesses who could use the loan to scale up and commercialise new technologies. This is part of Innovate UK’s 2-year pilot loans programme, through which a total of £50 million is available.

The first successful companies include:

• CitiLogik: analysing how people move to identify and analyse demand activity
• Alert Technology: the world’s first portable asbestos detectors
• Utonomy: smart gas grid control to increase biomethane injection capacity
• 3-Sci: moisture monitoring system for corrosion under insulation