Paddington Life Sciences– one of WestTech London’s anchor innovation clusters – has been selected by the Greater London Authority to lead the delivery of the new London-wide Life Sciences Talent Hub.
Paddington Life Sciences, which is hosted by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, will bring together employers, educators, healthcare organisations and innovation partners from across London to create clearer and more inclusive pathways into life sciences careers.
The initiative forms part of the Mayor of London’s £3.2 million investment programme to create fair, inclusive and sustainable employment and training opportunities for people across the capital.
The new hub will be delivered in partnership with organisations from across London’s life sciences ecosystem, including White City Innovation District, Knowledge Quarter, SC1 London, Barts Life Sciences and the Inclusive Health and Life Sciences Coalition – helping to ensure training and skills programmes meet the needs of employers while opening up high-quality career opportunities for Londoners.
Dr Suki Balendra, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Paddington Life Sciences, said:
“Securing investment in the Life Sciences Skills Hub is an important step towards building the workforce that our sector needs for the future. It will create more inclusive pathways into life sciences, develop the skills needed for future growth and ensure London remains a globally competitive centre for innovation.”
Jose Acuyo, Head of Strategy, Partnerships & Innovation at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said:
“Our role is to ensure employers can engage more effectively with London’s skills and talent system while helping to build a future workforce that will support innovation, inclusive growth and better health outcomes across the capital.”
Howard Dawber OBE, Deputy Mayor of London for Business and Chair of MedCity, said:
“With £1m funding from the Mayor, this new Life Sciences Talent Hub will deliver vital jobs and training support so that more Londoners, whatever their starting point, can access high-quality career opportunities in this exciting and fast-growing sector.”
This is a significant initiative for London’s world-leading life sciences sector and a fantastic example of how collaborative innovation can be harnessed to drive both economic growth and improvements in public health.
From seed to Series A rounds and beyond, businesses scaling in London’s leading deep tech ecosystem win investor confidence
Startups from White City Innovation District, one of the UK’s leading economic ecosystems for frontier innovation and future industries, have demonstrated their high-growth potential and strong appeal to investors – raising over £137 million within the first half of 2026. White City Innovation District, a landmark partnership between Imperial College London and Hammersmith & Fulham Council, is a transformative innovation hub located at the heart of the “Innovation Borough” – now London’s fastest-growing economy.1
Recent analysis by company data provider Beauhurst ranks Hammersmith & Fulham as the top London borough for investment raised per company over the last five years2, cementing its position as the fastest-scaling economy in the capital and top ten UK-wide3.
RQ Bio, a biotech developing long-acting antibody therapeutics for the prevention of influenza in high-risk and immunocompromised populations, closed out White City Innovation District’s H1 figures with the announcement of its oversubscribed $115M (£85.5M) Series A financing – the largest publicly announced UK Series A fundraise by a spinout this year.
Highlight raises by businesses based in White City Innovation District include:
Avacta Therapeutics (AIM: AVCT) – a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing pre|CISION®, a tumour-activated oncology delivery platform – announced that it had raised £9 million in an oversubscribed strategic equity placing (June 2026)
Resurrect Bio – developer of a plant disease resistance trait discovery platform powered by proprietary FloraFold® AI technology – announced in February 2026 the successful closing of initial Series A funding of £5.9 million. Resurrect Bio has now announced the final closing of the round at £7.5 million – oversubscribed from the initial close (May 2026)
Meatly – the pioneering cultivated meat company, which has developed Europe’s first commercially approved lab-grown meat for pet food – has raised £10.4 million in Series A funding to build Europe’s largest-ever cultivated meat facility (May 2026)
Nanomox – an Imperial College London spinout developing sustainable processes for inorganic materials through its patented Oxidative Ionothermal Synthesis (OIS®) platform – secured £2.4 million in seed funding (Feb 2026)
SOLVE Chemistry – an AI-driven chemistry startup spun out of Imperial – raised £4 million seed funding to expand its work helping pharmaceutical and agrochemical manufacturers bring products to market faster, more sustainably, and at lower cost (January 2026)
Engitix Therapeutics – a biotech company targeting the extracellular matrix (ECM) to develop transformative therapies for cancer and fibrosis – confirmed £18.3 million Series A extension financing (January 2026)
Engitix Therapeutics is located at White City Place, and all other companies are based on Imperial’s White City Campus. In early-stage funding rounds spanning seed to Series A and beyond, these highly innovative White City businesses have won clear investor backing and long-term confidence despite a challenging global investment market.
Further fuelling the momentum being generated across the White City ecosystem, Myricx Bio, a cancer therapy spinout from Imperial’s Department of Chemistry, has just announced a landmark agreement to be acquired by Novartis – based in White City Innovation District – for up to $1.5 billion. This record deal represents the highest-value acquisition of any Imperial spinout company to date.
White City Innovation District is one of four major research and innovation clusters powering WestTech London – the new globally competitive innovation ecosystem that is empowering the future of scientific and technological collaboration to drive entrepreneurship, job creation and investment. WestTech London brings together stakeholders around a shared mission to unlock the potential of West London’s innovation landscape and create a new powerhouse for frontier innovation.
White City Innovation District is home to some of the world’s most innovative organisations – from fast-growth startups to global brand leaders – and is playing a pivotal role in accelerating advances and fuelling growth in future industries spanning AI, deep tech, space, defence, life sciences, food tech, climate tech and digital media. Launched in 2017, this pioneering district is building a reputation as one of London’s leading economic ecosystems – creating over 17,000 jobs4 and generating over £6 billion of investment to date. Globally renowned organisations based in White City Innovation District include L’Oréal, Novartis, ITV and the BBC.
Commenting on the stand-out investment performance, Hugh Brady, President of Imperial College London said: “White City Innovation District was created to give the UK’s most promising startups and spinouts the co-located environment, expertise and community they need to prosper. The impressive investment secured by these businesses shows just how powerfully that model is working. Investors are backing the exceptional science, talent and ambition emerging from White City – even in a challenging market – because they recognise the world‑class potential that is thriving within White City Innovation District and our wider WestTech London ecosystem. This is exactly the kind of impact Imperial and H&F Council set out to deliver in partnership: helping frontier innovators to scale faster, to create new industries, and to open up new opportunities and pathways to success in West London that will benefit the entire UK economy.”
Councillor Stephen Cowan, Leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council added: “Building an environment where serendipitous collisions can occur among people who can innovate and change the world is at the heart of our Upstream London industrial strategy. Through our partnership with Imperial, we are transforming Hammersmith & Fulham into an inclusive innovation campus borough and a stand-out European leader in fourth industrial revolution industries. These hugely impressive investment figures are a vote of confidence in our mission and show why our borough has become London’s fastest growing economy.”
Owen Ensor, CEO of Meatly, commented: “This investment marks a powerful endorsement – not just of Meatly, but of Britain’s foodtech and biotech sectors. Meatly has one focus – to make commercially viable cultivated meat a reality. Over the last four years, Meatly’s pioneering team has systematically focused on reducing key costs and building the strongest possible technical foundation for growth. Now we have our own industry-leading technology, and we are ready to scale. This step will allow us to prove commercial viability at scale and start to continually produce Meatly Chicken to the UK pet food market.”
Linden Schrecker, CEO of SOLVE Chemistry, commented: “Since our last funding round led by XTX Ventures, we have tripled our team as we build the future of chemical process development. SOLVE Chemistry is helping some of the biggest pharmaceutical and agrochemical companies in the world move faster from discovery to full-scale production, using our unique automated flow lab hosted in Scale Space, and our ML and AI-driven software to generate better data, sooner. White City Innovation District has been an ideal base to grow our company, offering flexible lab space, access to leading customers and investors, and world-class collaboration opportunities with Imperial College London.”
Estimated figures from ONS for London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s gross domestic product (GDO), April 2025
Source: West London Business powered by Beauhurst, January 2026
Source: Hammersmith & Fulham Council figures, 2025
Estimated 17,200 jobs have been added in high growth sectors, 2017– 2025 (Source: Data City, 2025)
Myricx Bio, a cancer therapy spinout from Imperial’s Department of Chemistry today announced it has reached agreement to be acquired by Novartis – based in White City Innovation District – for up to $1.5 billion, including $1.1 billion cash upfront plus potential milestone payments. The agreement between the two companies represents the highest-value acquisition of any Imperial spinout company to date.
Myricx Bio was founded in 2019 to build on research into N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) carried out by founders Professor Ed Tate, Dr. Andrew Bell and Dr. Roberto Solari in Imperial’s Department of Chemistry and The Francis Crick Institute, with key support from Cancer Research UK (CRUK).
Since then, the company has transformed its deep expertise in NMT biology and chemistry into the discovery and development of new treatments for a range of different tumour types through a novel class of payloads for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).
These payloads are designed to overcome the limitations associated with widely used ADC classes such as TOPO‑1 and tubulin inhibitors. Myricx Bio has built an advanced pre‑clinical pipeline of proprietary NMTi‑ADCs, with lead programmes targeting clinically validated cancer antigens including B7‑H3 and HER2.
In 2024, Myricx Bio raised £90 million in investment – one of the largest Series A rounds ever raised by a European academic biotech spinout. Myricx’s Chief Scientific Officer Francesca Zammarchi was formerly part of the team at ADC Therapeutics, also founded in White City Innovation District.
Professor Hugh Brady, President of Imperial College London, said: “This proposed acquisition is a real testament to the strength of Imperial’s research and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Spinouts are a key part of translating Imperial’s world leading research into real-world impact as part of our Science for Humanity strategy, and we are proud to have supported Myricx Bio throughout their journey.”
Myricx Bio team pictured from L-R: Co-Founder Dr Andrew Bell; Co-Founder Dr Roberto Solari; Co-Founder Professor Ed Tate; Chief Technology Office Dr Robin Carr
Congratulations to pioneering biotech RQ Bio, based at Scale Space in White City Innovation District, on the news of its oversubscribed $115M (£85.5M) Series A financing – the largest publicly announced UK Series A fundraise by a spinout this year.
Frazier Life Sciences led the financing round, with participation from new investors EQT Life Sciences, Forbion, Monograph Capital, Wellington Management and founding investor LifeArc Ventures.
RQ Bio was co-founded by Paul Kellam, Professor of Virus Genomics at Imperial College London, and who is also Chief Scientific Officer for the business. The company is developing long-acting monoclonal antibodies (LAAbs) designed to deliver powerful, season-long protection against influenza with a single administration — a potential game changer for immunocompromised and high-risk populations. With this significant investment, its lead programme RQB01 moves closer to advancing into the clinic, ushering in a new approach to preventing serious respiratory viral disease.
This landmark financing is a testament to what makes WestTech London a powerful environment for breakthrough science:
World-leading life sciences cluster – where cutting-edge research meets entrepreneurial ambition
Deep academic-industry collaboration – anchored by Imperial College London
Fast-growing ecosystem connecting talent, capital and innovation across West London and beyond
This latest biotech funding success also highlights Imperial’s global leadership in addressing emerging health challenges – underlined earlier this month with the launch of the Biosecurity Network of Excellence. Introduced during London Tech Week, the Network has been created in response to escalating threats worldwide across human, animal and plant health.
With trail‑blazing companies like RQ Bio, the leadership of Imperial, and the strength of anchor clusters like White City Innovation District, WestTech London is defining what the next era of deep tech innovation looks like — tackling urgent challenges from pandemics to food security and beyond.
During London Tech Week, a major boost to London’s global tech leadership – Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) and Imperial College London have announced a strategic partnership to accelerate frontier innovation, regeneration and inclusive growth across West London, strengthening the capital’s innovation power.
Bringing together two anchor institutions, this collaboration will support the regeneration of Old Oak and Park Royal Opportunity Area as a powerhouse for entrepreneurship, inward investment, and high-growth businesses. With Imperial’s 17+ acre landholding and long-term commitment to the area, Old Oak Innovation Cluster continues to play a central role in WestTechLondon’s mission to unlock economic opportunity and drive job creation.
As London Tech Week shines a spotlight on the capital’s world‑leading innovation ecosystem, OPDC and Imperial are joining forces to:
Grow a world-class, innovation-led cluster delivering inclusive growth
Create vibrant new neighbourhoods with jobs, homes, and exceptional place-making
Strengthen local talent pipelines for frontier industries
Enhance collaboration across West London’s universities, building an exemplar Higher Education Institution (HEI) cluster
This partnership aligns with OPDC’s flagship £10bn, 70-acre Old Oak regeneration, set to deliver 8,000 homes, extensive green space, and up to 200,000 sqm of commercial and community space — all anchored by the UK’s best-connected new station at Old Oak Common.
Imperial is already scaling activity in the area with the opening earlier this year of Grapht Works – a 9.6-acre advanced manufacturing hub supporting high-growth innovators – and 1 Portal Way, offering 55,000 sq ft of affordable lab and office space for science and tech firms, due to launch this summer.
Dame Karen Buck, Chair of OPDC, said:
“Global success is made in local places, and our shared ambition is to create a world–class hub for tech, research and business, generating thousands of jobs in a thriving, superconnected West London community. With major anchor uses taking shape, Old Oak is emerging as a key destination for London – a place where innovation, opportunity and investment can come together.”
Professor Hugh Brady, President of Imperial, said:
“This strategic collaboration agreement reflects our shared ambition for the transformation of Old Oak and belief in its potential to become a nationally significant location for innovation, entrepreneurship and inclusive growth. Old Oak is ideally positioned to be the hub which brings together established and emerging innovation zones across London and nationwide, creating corridors of unrivalled connectivity and economic opportunity.”
Imperial College London and the Earls Court Development Company (ECDC) have announced a new partnership set to advance climate innovation in London for the benefit of the UK, supporting the UK’s Industrial Strategy 2025.
ECDC also becomes part of WestTech London – bringing a new focus on cutting-edge climate research and cleantech entrepreneurship within the ecosystem.
The climate innovation partnership will see ECDC:
Use Earls Court’s 40-acre brownfield site as a live testbed for climate tech R&D, creating real-world innovation testing opportunities for academics, spinouts and startups
Support founders through Imperial’s Venture Catalyst Challenge and Undaunted, Imperial’s centre and incubator for climate change innovation
Collaborate with Imperial on climate innovation skills development and education, delivering critical skills for the UK to be a global leader in this burgeoning sector
Work with H&F Council to embed Upstream London and the Pathway Bond programme, maximising the opportunity for local people to be part of the clean economic future
Host a Jawdrop Summit focussed on climate-tech, organied by Nexus, the joint venture between Imperial and H&F Council.
ECDC is already providing real-world testing and advice to innovators, offering mentoring and feedback to maximise their commercial readiness. The first pilot projects include Guerilla, a prototype “guerilla drain” which is fitted with sensors that filter and monitor stormwater pollutants in real time, helping to prevent contamination at source and Isometric Outcomes, a social enterprise startup specializing in engineering product design, which is testing its energy-recovery technology which captures and reuses waste heat in buildings.
The Earls Court masterplan will be a £10bn transformation to create a climate-resilient district for London, encompassing c.4,000 homes and 2.5 million sq ft of workspace focused around a climate incubator primarily clustered within Hammersmith & Fulham. Through WestTech London and Upstream London, Earls Court will be connected to other innovation clusters across London and the UK, generating opportunities for R&D across the Earls Court site and greater economic growth.
The Earls Court development will make a major contribution to the UK economy, generating £3bn GVA/annum, creating and supporting up to 12,000 jobs on site and 23,500 jobs across the UK supply chain.
Professor Peter Haynes, Imperial Provost and Deputy President, said: “When Imperial launched WestTech London we set out an ambition to empower the future of scientific innovation by strengthening the pipeline from laboratory discoveries through technology development to new companies. We have been delighted with the response from stakeholders who share our vision and have joined us to unlock the innovation potential of West London to drive investment, economic growth and job creation. This new partnership with ECDC will play an important role in helping to advance climate innovation across WestTech London for the benefit of UK.”
Alyssa Gilbert, co-director of Imperial’s School of Sustainability and Director of Innovation at the Grantham Institute and Undaunted, said: “The built environment is one of the one of the most crucial and urgently needed areas of focus for climate innovation. We know that the collective power of Imperial’s entrepreneurial universe is vast and now, thanks to this partnership with Earls Court, our talented students, inspired staff and pioneering founders will have the opportunity to advance their climate innovations in a real-world setting, at one of the UK’s most exciting regeneration schemes.”
Peter Runacres, Head of Urban Futures at The Earls Court Development Company, said: “Partnering with Imperial brings world-class research, a pipeline of talent, and deep sector expertise that will help us shape Earls Court as one of the most sustainable developments in London. Following quickly after a resolution to grant consent in both boroughs, this is a critical part of our focus on delivering a transformative development at Earls Court. Together, we will create a major new destination for climate innovation, where pioneering businesses, academia and future-focused organisations come together to accelerate solutions to address the climate emergency.”
Cllr Stephen Cowan, Leader of H&F, said: “We’re extremely excited at the announcement of the new climate partnership. Over the last decade, since agreeing our unique industrial strategy partnership with Imperial College London, my team and I have been able to connect land developers with Imperial to build new laboratories, student accommodation, start-up spaces and more. Both Imperial and ECDC are our key partners. The wider Earls Court development will be a core addition to our Upstream London inclusive industrial strategy. That has transformed Hammersmith & Fulham into a global economic hotspot in future industries and made us London’s fastest growing economy – bringing an array of life-changing opportunities to our residents.
Imperial and ECDC are also founder members of H&F’s new Pathway Bond which, in this instance, underlines their commitment to our community and will empower local young people with a clear path to skills and opportunities in the cutting-edge climate-tech sector. In a world changing faster than ever before, the new climate innovation focus is also an extremely positive advancement for London and the UK.”
Laura Citron OBE, CEO of London & Partners, said: “WestTech London is really starting to take root. These partnerships show just how much momentum there is behind creating these vital corridors across the city. And when you look at what’s driving that, a lot of it comes down to London’s ability to commercialise R&D at scale. That’s been a real catalyst for growth in areas like climate tech, where London is genuinely leading the way. And that growth is now creating real demand for new kinds of innovation spaces. Earl’s Court being a great example – it has the potential to become a real home for the green economy. It also shows what’s possible when we unlock brownfield land for the innovation economy. There’s a lot we can learn from that.”
Imperial College London is joining this year’s London Tech Week — the UK’s flagship celebration of innovation, technology and global collaboration – to connect with the global tech community, unlock opportunities for growth and shape the future of business.
Taking place in the heart of WestTech London, London Tech Week (LTW) brings together 30,000 of the brightest minds, visionary thinkers and industry leaders to explore the investment, innovation and talent that is shaping the next era of tech. Imperial will be at the centre of the week’s activities, exhibiting throughout at the Olympia London expo and contributing world-class expert speakers to key panel sessions.
This year’s LTW programme embraces the entire landscape of emerging and transformative technologies, with core themes including AI, deep tech, quantum, startups, enterprise resilience, UK and European tech leadership, and the human impact and national security dimensions of technology. Discover more about Imperial’s presence at one of the most influential gatherings of enterprise leaders, startup innovators, investors and technologists anywhere in the world.
VISIT THE IMPERIAL STAND (8–12 June 2026)
Imperial will be hosting a stand at the expo, showcasing its role as a global convening institution across:
World‑leading research
Enterprise and commercialisation
Advanced skills and talent development
International engagement
The wider London innovation ecosystem
Head to Stand 229 in Enterprise World – one of the two main exhibition zones at London Tech Week – to meet the Imperial team and explore our on-stand presentations. Across the week, Imperial teams will highlight cutting‑edge research, breakthrough ventures, and Imperial’s unique ability to bring together academia, industry, government and investors within the WestTech London ecosystem to accelerate innovation with real‑world impact.
12.15 – 12.30: Expanding Technology through Convergence
13.15 – 13.45: Innovation Ecosystem
14.15 – 14.30: From Study to Startup
HEAR FROM EXPERT SPEAKERS
Imperial experts will be contributing to high‑profile sessions across the programme, reflecting leadership in climate innovation, deep tech, and space sustainability.
1. Innovation Arc Day – Tuesday 9 June
12:30–13:15 | Roundtable: Turning UK Discovery Into Global Advantage
Alyssa Gilbert, Director of Innovation at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment and Co‑Director of the School of Convergence Science, will join a cross‑disciplinary panel exploring how the UK can translate scientific excellence into global competitive advantage.
Panel contributors include leaders in AI, life sciences, robotics, quantum and climate innovation:
AI & Compute – Professor Elena Simperl, King’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence
Life Sciences – Professor Graham Lord, King’s College London
Climate & Materials – Alyssa Gilbert, Imperial College London
Robotics & Autonomy – Professor Christos Bergeles, King’s College London
Quantum & Photonics – Professor Bob Coecke, University of Oxford
2. Deep Tech Stage – Tuesday 9 June
17:00–17:30 | Rebuilding the Mineral Value Chain: From Discovery to Sovereign Processing
Dr Nigel Steward, Director and Professor of Practice at the Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance (CSEP) at Imperial, will moderate a discussion on reshaping the mineral value chain for resilience and sustainability.
Panellists include:
Dr Liz Dennet, Founder & CEO, Endolith
Guy Hatcher, Co‑Founder & Managing Director, Green Lithium
3. Deep Tech Stage – Wednesday 10 June
11:30–12:00 | How to Solve the Space Debris Problem
This session brings together leaders in space sustainability, including:
Professor Jonathan Eastwood, Professor of Space Physics, Imperial College London
Joanne Wheeler MBE, Alden & Earth & Space Sustainability Initiative
Andrew Faiola, Commercial Director, Astroscale
Dr Alex Barber, Earth & Space Sustainability Initiative; Royal Astronomical Society
Together, they will explore the technologies, policies and international cooperation needed to address one of the most urgent challenges in the space sector.
JOIN THE CONFERENCE: BIOSECURITY AT THE FRONTIER
Imperial will be hosting a high-level biosecurity conference at Scale Space in White City Campus on Wednesday 10th June 2026 (9:15am – 5:15pm)
Biosecurity at the frontier will bring together global leaders to explore emerging biological threats and the actions needed to address them. Moving beyond analysis, the conference will focus on building the frameworks, partnerships, and capabilities required to strengthen biosecurity globally.
Participation is aimed at senior figures across government, international organisations, research institutions and industry working in defence, security, biotechnology, AI, diagnostics and therapeutics.
IMPERIAL SPEAKERS:
Professor Hugh Brady President
Professor Wendy Barclay Regius Professor of Infectious Disease
Professor Leon Barron Professor of Analytical and Environmental Sciences
Professor Neil Ferguson Director, School of Public Health
Professor Nicholas Grassly Professor of Infectious Disease & Vaccine Epidemiology
Professor Azra Ghani Chair in Infectious Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health
Professor Paul Kellam Professor of Viral Genomics
Professor Karen Polizzi Professor of Biotechnology
Professor Mary Ryan Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise)
Amanda Wolthuizen Vice-President (Strategy)
GUEST SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
Jonathan Black Former UK Deputy National Security Adviser
Kristof Bonnarens Deputy Head of Unit, Directorate-General for HERA, European Commission
Professor Susan Hopkins CEO, UK Health Security Agency
Dr Nicholas Joad Director, DSTL, and Deputy Chief Scientific Advisor, Ministry of Defence
Natalie Kempston Deputy Director, National Security and Operational Response, Department of Health and Social Care
Professor Dr Rune Linding NATO DIANA Challenge Manager for Human Resilience and Biotechnologies
Louise Owen Deputy Director, Cabinet Office
Jo Wales Senior Director and Lead, Regional Pandemic Readiness and UK Resilience, Moderna
Brian Wang Programme Director, The Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA)
Stephen Cowan, Leader of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, will be speaking at the session The Upskilling Imperative: Preparing for the Jobs of Tomorrow (Tuesday 9 June | 15:30–16:00 | Ignition Stage | Tech for Humanity track).
This timely discussion will explore how organisations can stay competitive as roles evolve faster than traditional hiring pipelines, and how innovation can drive inclusive economic growth.
Fellow panellists include:
Sheridan Ash MBE (Moderator), Founder & Co‑CEO – Tech She Can
Gori Yahaya, CEO – Upskill Universe
Professor Geoff Rodgers, Pro Vice Chancellor – Enterprise & Employment, Brunel University London
Councillor Cowan’s contribution will spotlight Hammersmith & Fulham’s leadership in building a future‑ready workforce and – through White City Innovation District and the wider WestTech London ecosystem – supporting a thriving innovation ecosystem across West London in partnership with Imperial.
OUR COMMUNITY AT LTW
WestTech London’s Solena Materials has been selected by the Department for Business and Trade to exhibit at London Tech Week on Monday 8th June, alongside world-class tech leaders, innovators, and investors. The team will be at their stand to talk deep tech technology and explore partnerships ahead of their anticipated Series A investment round later this year.
Solena Materials began its journey in White City Innovation District’s I-HUB and is now based in WestTech London’s Old Oak Innovation Cluster at Grapht Works – London’s first dedicated facility for pilot and demonstration advanced manufacturing.
IMPERIAL AT THE LONDON TECH WEEK FRINGE
IMPERIAL IEM DEMO DAY
Tuesday 9th June 2026 | 17:00 – 20:00 | Scale Space, White City Innovation District
After months of building, iterating and stress-testing, the standout founders from the IEM cohort take the stage to pitch their ventures live to a packed room of investors, operators, alumni and the wider London start-up ecosystem. Expect bold ideas, sharp Q&A, audience reactions, and the kind of pitch energy that only a Demo Day can deliver.
WHAT TO GET RIGHT IN THE FIRST 1,000 DAYS OF A STARTUP
London Tech Week will be coming to White City Innovation District with Imperial Enterprise Lab and Nexus (Imperial x H&F) hosting the must-attend fringe event: What to Get Right in the First 1,000 Days of a Startup
Thursday 11 June 2026 | 17:30–20:30 | Scale Space, White City
Most startups never make it past their first 1,000 days. This event brings together founders and investors to share candid lessons from the early stages of building a venture.
Keynote speech: Councillor Stephen Cowan, Leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council
Founders Panel:
Julia Fan Li – Micrographia
Claire Trant – Untap
Rima Suppan – Peachies
Fryderyk Szydlowski – Embargo
Investor Panel:
Adam Cragg – Osney Capital
Maureen Haverty – Seraphim
Tom Weatherall – Amadeus Capital
Topics include:
Building leadership foundations and team culture
Navigating early product development
Establishing trust with investors
Real‑world lessons from founders who’ve lived the first 1,000 days
At London Tech Week, Imperial will be connecting with partners, innovators and leaders across the global tech ecosystem — and showcasing the research, talent and ideas across WestTech London that are shaping the future of technology in London and around the world.
Stay up to date with Imperial’s activity throughout the week on LinkedIn and by following #LTW2026 on social media.
WestTech London’s Solena Materials and its partner The Protein Express have been awarded €1.4 million in funding through the Eureka Eurostars programme.
The new Eureka Eurostars funding will support the EXPREST collaboration — a joint project combining Solena’s AI-driven protein design with The Protein Express’ industrial-scale fermentation platform to bring high-performance, novel protein fibres to market at scale.
Solena Materials is creating new bio-based fibres using AI and computational design to develop de novo protein sequences with precisely tuned performance characteristics. In the EXPREST project, these designs are being combined with The Protein Express’s production system to enable scalable, economically viable manufacturing. The first applications target premium and performance apparel, with the broader goal of building a scalable materials platform that reduces dependence on fossil‑derived inputs across the textile industry.
Solena Materials, which began its journey in White City Innovation District’s White City Deep Tech Campus, is now scaling in WestTech London’s Old Oak Innovation Cluster at Grapht Works – London’s first dedicated facility for pilot and demonstration advanced manufacturing.
Dr James MacDonald, CEO and Co-Founder of Solena Materials, commented: “We are delighted to be working with The Protein Express/BioscienZ on EXPREST. This collaboration brings together computational protein design and industrial-scale production to address one of the key barriers facing protein-based textiles: manufacturability at scale. Together, we are progressing a new class of fibres from development towards genuine commercial readiness.”
Senior science leaders gathered in White City Innovation District to mark the opening of the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein laboratories. As the European hub for the Bezos Earth Fund’s Future of Food programme, the Centre — based in Imperial College London’s White City Campus – brings together researchers, industry, investors, and policymakers to advance sustainable protein innovation.
The new state-of-the-art labs provide dedicated infrastructure for developing, testing and scaling sustainable protein technologies, including the Microbial Food Hub, strengthening Imperial’s work in microbial and fermentation‑based approaches. Designed as interconnected spaces, the facility supports the full research and translation pipeline – from cell banking to scale‑up and commercialisation.
By advancing sustainable protein research, the Centre aims to address climate, food security, and supply‑chain challenges while training the next generation of experts through new PhD and Masters programmes.
The ribbon‑cutting event brought together Imperial researchers, government representatives, regulators, and leading sustainable food startups. The event included remarks from Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency Katie Pettifer, Deputy Chief Scientific Advisor for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Dan McGonigle, and Chair of the Regulatory Innovation Office Lord David Willetts.
Professor Rodrigo Ledesma Amaro, Director of the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, said: “The greatest challenge we face in disrupting the food system is making sustainable food cheap enough and good enough that consumers will want to eat it. Consumers are not going to select food just because it is more sustainable. It also needs to be tasty, healthy, and affordable, and it needs to be included in our culinary practices. With that in mind, we are focusing our efforts on bringing engineering biology and AI technology to food science, working with microbial food, fermentation, cultivated meat, and plant-based food to create benefit for people and for the planet.”
Professor Mary Ryan, Imperial’s Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise), said: “At Imperial, we try hard to make integration and collaboration across disciplines as easy as possible, because we believe that’s where transformation can happen. The Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein has been supported by the Bezos Earth Fund and built to accelerate that work here in White City. The Centre is already home to more than 160 researchers, and we now have over £60m in research funding in the sustainable protein space – all of which comes with a very clear focus on making sure that we translate this work into real-world applications.”
Dr Andy Jarvis, Director of Future of Food at the Bezos Earth Fund, said: “We need to give consumers a range of choice, wherever they go to get their food, and for that choice to be sustainable. How do we make alternative proteins tastier, cheaper and healthier? That is what we’re looking for this lab to do.”
About The Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein
The Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein was first announced in 2024 as part of a $100 million commitment from the Bezos Earth Fund to accelerate sustainable protein innovation and expand consumer choice in the food industry. Since then, the Centre has convened a network of more than 350 companies and stakeholders, launched over 100 research projects and brought on board 11 venture capital partners.
Spanning seven Imperial academic departments, the aim of the Centre is to advance research into precision fermentation, cultivated meat, bioprocessing and automation, nutrition, and AI and machine learning.
Operating across seven Imperial departments, the Centre advances work in precision fermentation, cultivated meat, bioprocessing, automation, nutrition, and AI‑driven approaches. Its research is already supported by industry partners including THIS, Algenuity, Fermtech, and startups within Imperial’s ecosystem such as Arborea and Meatly.
• Arborea, based in I‑HUB in White City Innovation District and founded by Imperial alumnus Julian Melchiorri, converts captured CO₂ into net‑zero protein and other ingredients for food, feed, cosmetics, and agriculture.
• Meatly, a cultivated meat company, launched the world’s first cultivated pet food in 2025 and recently raised over £10m to build Europe’s largest cultivated meat bioreactor facility in WestTech London’s Old Oak Innovation Cluster at Grapht Works – London’s first dedicated pilot and demonstration advanced manufacturing facility.
Dr Andy Jarvis, from the Bezos Earth Fund, cutting the ribbon to formally open the new laboratories.
Professor Rodrigo Ledesma Amaro speaking at the opening event.
The entrance to the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein.
Pioneering women’s health startup P.Happi® is scaling at WestTech London’s brand-new Innovation Hub in North Acton.
Imperial College London spin-out P.Happi® is establishing laboratory facilities at 1 Portal Way, a new scaleup space delivered in partnership by Imperial and Sciopolis and located at the heart of WestTech London’s emerging Old Oak Innovation Cluster.
CEO Dr Chiara Board and her team will be ramping up production of the company’s patented microbiome-based active ingredient, Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus (B.Y.M.® 1405) – a naturally occurring bacterium that is the foundation of the company’s consumer health range, now available at Boots UK and Pharmacy2U.
The move marks a major milestone in P.Happi®’s evolution from research-led startup into a manufacturer scaling delivery of its intimate health solutions for women – supported by the Imperial College London and the wider WestTech London ecosystem.
P.Happi® joins clean energy innovators Ki Hydrogen as the first companies to take space in this transformative new Innovation Hub.
