‘Plus X’ is a new sister brand, born out of the success of CRL, a national network of innovation hubs that help businesses of all sizes to collaborate, innovate and grow.
As Plus X expands across the UK, the team are passionate about transforming local areas, driving productivity, helping businesses scale and unlocking potential through partnerships with global corporations, educational institutions and local councils.
NEW NORMAL, NEW LOOK!
To visualise the transformation to the new Plus X family, the team at CRL has created a new brand identity, logo and website. They have retained important elements of CRL’s historical legacy and built on elements that form the foundation of both brands.
CELEBRATING A POWERFUL PARTNERSHIP, CRL & MOUSER ELECTRONICS
Mouser Electronics and the Central Research Laboratory have joined forces in a new partnership designed to accelerate the growth and learning of product makers & hardware pioneers across the UK.
The partnership is designed to support our cohort of startups through the product development process. Mouser will provide support and services from its extensive supplier catalogue and experts, with signposting within the CRL space to show members where they can find and access their services. Additionally, they will also provide specific technological insights through open events and workshops, including CRL’s Demo Day in November.
Mouser Electronics is a worldwide distributor of semi conductors and electronic components, specialising in the rapid introduction of new products and technologies for design engineers.
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CRL TEAMED UP WITH KPMG TO SUPPORT UK’S BEST STARTUPS
“Thank you so much! It was a brilliant 3 days with extremely valuable takeaways and I’m very grateful to have taken part”
In July, 22 of the UK’s best startups went through an intensive 3 day investment readiness programme run by CRL in partnership with KPMG. Participants were selected from 150+ applications and each got the chance to hear success stories from founders who have raised Series A, take part in presentation workshops and negotiation training and pitch to some incredible investors including Balderton Capital, Open Ocean, mobeus, Angel CoFund and many more.
If you missed out on this event, the team will be running another BOOST event in September. In the meantime, you can read the key take aways from this event below!
LAUNCH OF NEW PLUS X INNOVATION HUB, BRIGHTON
Earlier this month Plus X celebrated the launch of our first new location, Plus X Brighton. Spread over 7 floor and 53,000 sq ft our beautiful new space will be home to 550 inspiring members. The team also unveiled BRITE, a new £10m government supported innovation programme to help ambitious businesses scale over the next 3 years, delivered in partnership with the University of Brighton.
COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS
BotsAndUs
BotsAndUs who have recently closed their first VC funding round of $2.5M. This is a very exciting moment for the company as it reflects the increasing demand for automation and robotics. With the newly invested capital, they intend to grow their team, accelerate robot deployments and explore new products and services.
It is an incredible achievement and we are so proud to have supported BotsAndUs throughout their development at CRL. It’s results like this that highlight how important the CRL community is to young companies and entrepreneurs.
“CRL has helped provide a productive environment for BotsandUs to support a growing team & effective product development with facilities and equipment available 24 hours, 7 days a week to meet those crucial deadlines!”, Andrei Danescu, Cofounder & CEO of BotsAndUs.
Aceleron
The UK developer of sustainable and reusable battery solutions announces a £2m million equity investment with £1.45m from BGF, the UK’s most active investor, and the remainder from existing investor Mercia Asset Management.
The investment will enable Aceleron to scale the production of its unique circular economy battery technology and expand its reach across global markets including the UK, Europe, Africa and Americas. They also plan to double their team in the coming year.
Aceleron completed the CRL accelerator programme in 2016.
Soapstone
One of the startups on CRL’s cohort has launched a new product and we think it’s brilliant!
The Soapstone is a sustainable way to sanitise your hands. Refillable, portable and built for life.
At the press of a button, it dispenses sanitiser onto your hands. Use it with one hand and disinfect in under 2 seconds! Rub it like a bar of soap to disinfect both your hands and the product simultaneously. Refill it with any sanitiser, liquid or gel, or use our WHO approved 70% Isopropyl Alcohol Gel supplied in recyclable aluminium bottles. 100% Funded in under 6hrs! Support them on Kickstarter.
