INNOVATION
AS LYVA LABS APPROACHES ITS THIRD BIRTHDAY, WHAT PROGRESS ARE WE MAKING TOWARDS SUPPORTING INNOVATORS IN LIVERPOOL CITY REGION?
A hive of innovation, Liverpool City Region (LCR) has always been home to organisations powered by research and development to deliver scientific and technological firsts through inspirational partnerships. LYVA Labs is now a key player in this landscape. Established with £10.5m from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority we drive innovation-led growth and highquality jobs, supporting the LCR aim for 5% of GVA to be invested in R&D by 2030. How are we achieving that? Through investment into start-ups in key growth sectors, supporting established businesses to invest in new R&D, and enabling collaborative innovation across the region to drive economic growth. We have directly invested over £1M in eight health and life science start-ups. Recent examples include £125K into Spotlight Pathology, to develop AI tools for supporting blood cancer diagnoses, and £50K into Wirral-based Tectores Ltd, whose patented technology, PelliTec®, reduces diabetic foot ulcers, to prevent lower limb amputations. But the bigger picture is we have managed to leverage a total of £2.6m in grant funding into these eight start-ups, over £17m of government funding into new programmes for priority sectors like advanced manufacturing, and nearly £6m in third-party equity investment for SMEs we have supported. That is a total economic contribution of £25m so far. Our own diverse team has doubled to 15 staff over the past 18 months and the companies we have supported, including six completely new to the region, have created more than 25 new high-quality jobs. LYVA Labs’ unique and responsive offers help businesses overcome barriers to innovation for SMEs and larger, established organisations, to ignite innovation in R&D, product development, and the commercialisation journey. Our Consultancy Service supports businesses with a £15k R&D partnership grant. More than a dozen local businesses
have received funding and consultancy innovation workshops to help them embed innovative practices. These R&D collaborations span knowledge partners at local universities and open innovation facilities like Materials Innovation Factory or specialist design engineering firms such as Liverpool-based Hooper Quinn. One such project has seen us help Knowsleybased Bomac Electric to secure a £96K grant from Innovate UK. Bomac Electric designs and manufactures heating elements and products; the investment helped LYVA Labs’ CEO Lorna Green and LYVA Labs’ Chairman, Steve Stuart the company build a unique product and sensor system for waste oil. LYVA Labs’ LYVA Labs also supports the LCR innovation Advanced Manufacturing Innovation ecosystem - building on the success of Network connected Bomac Electric to consortia and industry collaborations like local product design specialists Defproc iiCON, the Materials Innovation Factory, Engineering. and the Hartree National Centre for For earlier-stage businesses, our Deep Digital Innovation. LYVA Labs identifies Tech Incubator has enabled LYVA Labs to opportunities for innovative collaborations invest £130,000 in four companies: Bundant, to attract private and public investment, Leftfield Football Consulting, Heatio, and connecting people, organisations, skills, and StruckLoc, leveraging £340,000 in grant resources, to create consortia and clusters. funding, and £1.9m in co-investment. A We want to secure investment into LCR to further six investments in our second cohort build the capacity and capability to attract will be announced soon. the industry and private sector investment that will make the region a leading Over three quarters of our investments and destination for innovation. grants leveraged have gone to founders and CEOs from underrepresented groups If LYVA Labs can help your innovative and our strong conviction is helping diverse business, or you could play a role in our founders is essential to building an inclusive consortia and programmes, please get innovation ecosystem. in touch at www.lyvalabs.com
Our own diverse team has doubled to 15 staff over the past 18 months and the companies we have supported, including six completely new to the region, have created more than 25 new high-quality jobs. 34