Venture Builder-backed startups achieve major investment and market expansion milestones
Three startups supported by the award-winning Venture Builder at Nottingham Business School’s Centre for Business and Industry Transformation (CBIT) have achieved significant milestones in investment and growth.
By Helen Breese | Published on 13 December 2024
Categories: Press office; Nottingham Business School;
The fully funded Venture Builder programme focuses on nurturing entrepreneurs through a comprehensive suite of support, with key offerings including in-depth business model clinics and innovation sessions, business process and product road mapping, strategic growth hacking, and investment readiness. These core services are complemented by additional resources tailored to the unique needs of each startup.
PulpaTronics, Quoroom, and Freeaim participated in the programme as part of a cohort that benefited from tailored guidance designed to enhance their ventures. This included mapping value propositions and business models for more clarity, exploring new customer segments and channels, grant support, evaluating and validating new ideas, and receiving critical product feedback.
The mentorship and sparring partnership approach fostered an environment where these startups could refine their strategies and gain support at every stage of their journey.
PulpaTronics is developing sustainable RFID tags
Highlighting the potential of entrepreneurial ambition combined with strategic guidance from CBIT’s Venture Builder programme, this latest Venture Builder cohort have since achieved remarkable successes:
PulpaTronics recently closed its funding round with £430K of investment to achieve the company’s mission to deliver fully recyclable, metal-free and chipless RFID tags to track single-use items. The capital will allow them to accelerate product development, launch pilot trials with industry leaders, and expand its operations to meet market demand.
Freeaim – creator of Virtual Reality robotic shoes that allow the user to walk naturally in any direction while fully immersed in VR - raised £250K pre-seed funding. This investment will facilitate the immediate launch of a developer version of its flagship VR shoes and support scaling production for a full consumer release in 2025.
Quoroom, an investment management platform for angel syndicates, VC funds and founders achieved a major milestone by acquiring Investory, a company working in the angel investing sector. This acquisition added over 30 funds and angel investor groups as clients, with approximately 1,000 companies using its services.
Chloe So, co-founder & CEO of PulpaTronics, said: “Having just closed our pre-seed funding round, the timing of joining CBIT could not have aligned any better. We’ve been able to receive support around go to market strategy as well as new market segments. They have also been instrumental with grant applications.”
Connor Morrison, CBIT Business Development and Growth Hacking officer and Georgi Iliev, head of the Venture Builder, at the UK Innovation Awards
Recently crowned the Technology Innovation Champion at the prestigious UK Innovation Awards 2024, CBIT continues to expand its mission of empowering disruptive businesses to challenge industry norms and redefine what’s possible.
The Venture Builder programme is rooted in a vision to be more than just a support mechanism - it seeks to create a vibrant ecosystem where entrepreneurs are equipped to tackle complex challenges, embrace innovation, and scale with confidence.
Participating start-ups have access to an array of perks, including advanced hardware and software technologies such as drones, AI development-ready stations, 3D printers for prototyping, and credits for essential services like Notion, Miro, AWS, Siemens, Make Automation and other essential tools.
By fostering collaboration and providing access to cutting-edge tools and strategic support, the programme aspires to be a launchpad for businesses that transform industries and create lasting impact. CBIT envisions a future where every venture not only achieves their goals but also contributes to driving meaningful change in their respective industries.
Georgi Iliev, head of the Venture Builder at CBIT, said: "The achievements of PulpaTronics, Freeaim, and Quoroom showcase the value of tailored support and strategic guidance in driving innovation and growth through the Sparring Partnership Approach. At CBIT, we are proud to be a catalyst for their success and to contribute to shaping the future with disruptive businesses that change the industry norms."
Visit the CBIT Venture Builder website for more information.
Notes for Editors
Press enquiries please contact Helen Breese, Public Relations Manager, on telephone +44 (0)115 848 8751, or via email.
About Nottingham Business School at Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Business School (NBS) at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a leader in experiential learning and personalisation of business, management and economics education and research, combining academic excellence with positive impact on people, business and society. NBS has an unrivalled level of engagement with business, public and voluntary organisations. With more than 8,500 students, NBS is also one of UK’s largest business schools.
NBS is triple crown accredited by EQUIS, AACSB, and AMBA as well as EFMD BA for International Business, which are globally recognised hallmarks of excellence and quality for business education. NBS is also accredited by Small Business Charter, providing support and development for SMEs. The school is also a PRME Champion and held up as an exemplar and beacon by the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME).
About Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has been named UK ‘University of the Year’ five times in six years, (Times Higher Education Awards 2017, The Guardian University Awards 2019, The Times and Sunday Times 2018 and 2023, Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023) and is consistently one of the top performing modern universities in the UK.
It is the 3rd best modern university in the UK (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023). Students have voted NTU 1st in the UK for student employability (Uni Compare 2025)
NTU is the 5th largest UK institution by student numbers, with over 40,000 students and more than 4,400 staff located across six campuses. It has an international student population of almost 7,000 and an NTU community representing over 160 countries.
NTU owns two Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for outstanding achievements in research (2015, 2021). The first recognises NTU’s research on the safety and security of global citizens. The second was awarded for research in science, engineering, arts and humanities to investigate and restore cultural objects, buildings and heritage. The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent.
NTU was awarded GOLD in the national 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) assessment, as it was in 2019.
NTU is a top 10 for sport (British Universities and Colleges Sport league table 2023).
NTU is the most environmentally sustainable university in the UK and second in the world (UI Green Metric University World Rankings, 2023).