Pitch @ The Palace has been designed by Prince Andrew to help promote up and coming companies by inviting them to show off their innovative ideas to a business audience at St James Palace. On 5 November five companies from Bristol and Bath will be exhibiting at the event.
Also invited are business leaders, celebrities, CEOs and mentors with some lucky companies getting the chance to not only exhibit their wares but pitch directly to them for funding, advice and introductions.
As The Duke of York explains: “I believe the UK has the best scientists and engineers in the world – they create valuable intellectual property that can be exploited by entrepreneurial endeavour. There must be a common acknowledgement that entrepreneurs will drive growth and be the wealth creators of the future”.
“There must be a common acknowledgement that entrepreneurs will drive growth and be the wealth creators of the future”
The Bristol and Bath companies trying to get their chance at the lectern on the 5 November are associated with two local business incubators – SETSquared and Bristol Robotics Lab. All the companies involved will be exhibiting their ideas, and one of the companies from each of the incubation hubs will get to pitch directly to the Prince and his invited audience.
SETSquared at the Palace
SETSquared, has three companies attending, two of which are from Bristol and Bath.
The first of these companies is Smart Antenna Technologies, based in the University of Bath’s Innovation Centre which specialises in nurturing new business talent and providing a home for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Smart Antenna Technologies (SAT) was formed in 2013 based on research from a number of the academics in the area of antenna design. Today, handset manufacturers are seeking an effective antenna solution suitable for implementing the next generation of cellular handset technologies, known as Long Term Evolution (4G LTE).
The highly compact SAT technology replaces all existing six antennas—DVB-H, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GSM, GPS, 3G multi-bands and 3.9/4G LTE—with just one. This single SAT device provides significantly lower costs, is smaller in size and offers much needed performance gains over existing designs and technology.
The other SETSquared company to exhibit and possibly pitch is Bristol-based Nu Desine. Nu Desine specialise in music technology. Its flagship product is an innovative electronic musical instrument, the AlphaSphere ; ergonomically designed, it maps a series of tactile pads into flexible mappings. An instrument that is open to a myriad of playing styles.
You can see it in action in the video below:
Robots meet royalty
The three Bristol Robotics Laboratory also pitching for a pitch are Dawn Robotics Ltd, OmniDynamics and Reach Robotics.
Dawn Robotics designs, manufactures, and sells robot kits and components, for education, research and fun! Their robots kits have been used in a number of schools and also as part of an MSc Robotics programme. In addition, retail sales have more than quadrupled in the last 12 months.
OmniDynamics, meanwhile, identify technology trends and develop innovative ‘tech’ products to meet emerging demand.
Their first product, ‘Strooder’, is a plastic filament extruder for the consumer, exploiting the growth in desktop 3D printing. OmniDynamics robotics skills are a unique advantage in design and development processes.
- You may like: Startup Profile: OmniDynamics and its revolutionary 3D printer-ink recycling tool, Strooder
Last, but by no means least, Reach Robotics is developing the world’s first robotic gaming system for the consumer market. The four-legged robots will battle, controlled via tablet or smart phone. Physical and virtual add-ons will create a truly compelling gaming experience for today’s demanding and tech-savvy gamer.
We wish all the companies the best of luck! You can follow the proceedings on the Pitch@Palace twitter feed and see more at the Pitch at the Palace website.
