Imperial hosts capital's top early

Imperial hosts capital's top early-stage startups for London Demo Day 2026

A selection of the capital’s most exciting early-stage startups have pitched their businesses to an audience of investors and industry experts at Imperial College London.

Twenty ventures run by students and recent graduates from Imperial, King's College London, LSE, Queen Mary University of London and UCL were brought together to pitch at this year’s London Demo Day – the capital’s premier showcase for university-founded startups.

Now in its seventh year, London Demo Day is the largest showcase of its kind, providing an opportunity for investors, industry partners, and members of the capital’s innovation ecosystem to meet promising startups and see why London is a top location for university entrepreneurship.

Since launching in 2019, London Demo Day participants have gone on to collectively raise more than £140 million in investment. All 20 of the startups pitching at this year’s London Demo Day are seeking investments between £100,000 and £2m for their innovations, covering diverse areas such as health tech, sustainability and AI.

The event at Imperial’s South Kensington Campus included opening remarks from Professor Hugh Brady, President of Imperial College London, and a keynote speech from Dr Manjari Chandran-Ramesh, Partner in the Early Stage Fund at Amadeus Capital Partners.

In his opening remarks, Professor Hugh Brady highlighted WestTech London; the frontier innovation ecosystem, founded and anchored by Imperial, that is fuelling the next era of scientific and technological collaboration. WestTech London is already home to more than 1,000 frontier innovation companies, which together employ more than 20,000 people and generate £9 billion in annual turnover.

Professor Brady said: "Our universities aren’t just hotbeds of fantastic education and research; they are also hotbeds of innovation and produce so many great companies from our students and from our faculties year upon year. Those companies attract investment, generate jobs, and drive economic growth.”

He added: “London is a phenomenal success story already, and it is imperative for all of us, including the founders in this room, to take it to the next level, so we become an innovation ecosystem to match, compete and beat the very best in the world.”

Dr Chandran-Ramesh said: “Student startups are unusually close to the absolute frontier. Students encounter new research, new tools, and new ways of thinking before these ideas have become conventional industry practices. They move naturally across disciplines, and we have seen that in many of the 20 companies today.”

Following pitches from the startups, the audience of investors and innovation stakeholders was given an opportunity to meet the founders at a networking reception which included exhibits from all 20 of the ventures.

This year’s ventures representing Imperial were:

Imperial’s entrepreneurial ecosystem

Many of the startups who have represented Imperial at London Demo Day have previously been supported by the Imperial Enterprise Lab – our dedicated support service for entrepreneurial students, staff and alumni.

The participating startups are also now based across the entrepreneurial ecosystem that forms part of WestTech London, with Aeropod and Sealeo based at ScaleSpace in White City, ChangeBio based at the South Kensington Campus, and SurgeryAI based at The Foundry in Hammersmith.

Members of Imperial’s community can receive support at different stages of their entrepreneurial development, with resources such as:

To find out more about how Imperial can help you, visit the Imperial Enterprise Lab website.

Main image credit: Jo Mieszkowski / Imperial College London.

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