For us, the journey through Converge Challenge began back in the Summer of 2012. Our research group had been working on a piece of laser research that was suitable for a patent application. Once this application was submitted the head of the school encouraged us to take part in the Converge 2012 to see if the technology could be commercialized.
After further discussions with the life-sciences community at Heriot-Watt campus it was clearly obvious that our technology would make an exciting business case for the life-sciences imaging market. Over the following six weeks we put together our business plan, with added support via various workshops we attended as part of the competition.
The Converge Challenge was transformative for our company as it forced us to spend the time to consider the commercial viability of the technology we had developed. Due to the pressures that exist within academia it is unlikely we would have spent the time putting a robust business case together, had it not been for the application deadline forced upon us by the Converge Challenge. It is an ideal vehicle for forcing busy academics to consider the commercial benefits of their research.
We came third in the Converge Challenge, which gave us an enormous confidence boost and a belief that our ideal could turn into a viable business venture. Following on from this success we incorporated Chromacity in February 2013 and one member of our 3-man team secured a Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship, to dedicate all of his time commercializing the company.
During the last year we have turned our research based technology into a viable product that is now on the market. We are currently in discussions with a potential distributor and are seeking a seed round of investment to gain market traction, develop further products and grow Chromacity into a successful Scottish company.
