University of Nottingham celebrates six new spin-out companies in landmark year for innovation
Added by Love Business East Midlands | 12 August 2026
UPDATED: 13 August 2026
The University of Nottingham is celebrating its strongest years for commercialisation, with six new spin-out companies launched during the 2025/26 university financial year.
The new ventures, emerging from research across the Faculties of Engineering, Health Sciences and Science, and Nottingham University Business School, highlight the breadth of innovation at the university and its growing impact on industry, healthcare and society.
Spanning sectors including healthcare diagnostics, advanced electrification, quantum technologies and artificial intelligence (AI), the new companies demonstrate the breadth of innovation emerging from the university's research.
The achievement marks the university's strongest annual spin-out performance, bringing the university's portfolio of active companies to 44, reflecting the strength of its research commercialisation pipeline.
Professor Jane Norman, President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Nottingham, said:
"The creation of six new spin-out companies in a single year is a remarkable achievement and reflects the strength of our research, the ambition of our academics and the support available to transform ideas into real-world impact.
"These companies are addressing some of society's most pressing challenges, from improving healthcare outcomes and accelerating the transition to net zero, to advancing artificial intelligence and quantum technologies. We are incredibly proud of the researchers and teams behind them."
The Faculty of Engineering has launched two new ventures. HPDrive Technologies, created in partnership with GKN Aerospace, is commercialising pioneering, megawatt-scale cryogenic electrical machine and drive technologies for sustainable aviation and future hydrogen-powered regional and narrow-body aircraft applications.
A second engineering venture builds on the longstanding work the University of Nottingham has done with NEMA Ltd. It combines advanced electrical and electro-mechanical design capability, decades of aerospace actuation and certification experience, and established UK manufacturing capability to develop and industrialise high-performance actuation and motor-drive systems from concept through to qualified and production-ready hardware.
Shard Diagnostics produces accessible next-generation detection technologies for applications including oncology, infectious diseases, and point-of-care testing. Founded by University of Nottingham alumni in 2024, Shard Diagnostics joined the university's investment portfolio in 2025, as it works to scale up commercialisation and expand its product catalogue, which includes technology originating from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Qurae is helping healthcare organisations get more out of their data. Working in partnership with NHS trusts, research cohorts and other custodians of sensitive patient data, the company helps deliver the practical work of data transformation: establishing what data exists, bringing it up to recognised international standards, and putting governance in place that protects patients without blocking useful work. The result is data that is trusted, interoperable and ready to support both AI-driven research and day-to-day service improvement.
Founded by Phil Quinlan, Professor of Digital Engineering and Health Informatics, and Andy Rae, Senior Software Engineer, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Qurae connects its partners into the University of Nottingham's wider network of academic and clinical data expertise.
Professor Phil Quinlan, co-founder of Qurae, said:
"Almost every healthcare organisation we speak to knows its data could be doing more, but the path to delivering impact is not always easy to find as the barriers are rarely technological. Qurae does that groundwork alongside our partners, so the benefit lands with their patients and their services.”
Qurae co-founder Andy Rae added:
"NHS teams are not short of ambition for their data; they are short of the capacity to try something new. We work alongside the teams already in place on standards, governance and readiness, so that the capability we build stays with them."
From the School of Physics and Astronomy, Contour Advanced Magnetic Design Ltd is commercialising expertise in the control of magnetic fields. Founded by Professor Mark Fromhold, Dr Alister Davis, Dr Christopher Morley, Dr Niall Holmes and Dominic Sims, the company builds on more than a decade of research supported by the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme. Joining the team as CEO is Martyn Fisher, Head of Operations for Physical Sciences, as Contour continues to support the growing UK and global quantum supply chain, with applications across space, navigation, defence, clean energy, healthcare and agri-tech.
The sixth company, MarketNous, has spun out from Nottingham University Business School. Based on more than a decade of research by Dr Sam Beatson and the university’s first fintech spin-out, MarketNous has developed an AI-powered platform that helps traders and investors make better-informed decisions through transparent analysis of market, behavioural and macroeconomic data.
Dr Sam Beatson, founder of MarketNous and Associate Professor at Nottingham University Business School, said:
"Spinning out MarketNous has been an exciting opportunity to take years of research beyond the university and into the marketplace. We are also delighted to have been part of Innovate UK’s ICURe Explore and Exploit programmes which provided valuable support to accelerate our commercial journey, develop the business and bring our technology closer to market.”
Alongside the launch of six new spin-out companies, the university continues to support its growing portfolio of innovation-led businesses. Through Nottingham Technology Ventures (NTV), its wholly owned subsidiary managing the spin-out portfolio and strategic investments, the university has made 19 investments in existing spin-outs to help them scale, secure future funding and maximise impact.
Earlier this year, the university launched its fundraising for a new Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) fund, managed by SyndicateRoom, which aims to provide further financial backing for high-potential spin-outs and connect the university's innovation pipeline with investors.
Contributing to Nottingham's success is its integrated innovation ecosystem, which supports researchers from early discovery to real-world impact. By combining research excellence, commercialisation expertise, investor engagement and long-term business support, it helps innovators turn ideas into successful ventures.
