Triumph for three UCL-backed companies in business awards

Three companies with close links to UCL have triumphed in three different enterprise competitions, winning prizes and acclaim across Europe. Bio Bean, a winner of a UCL Bright Ideas Award in 2013 - which included seed funding for the business - have been awarded $100,000 in funding to continue at the inauguration of the Class of 2015 programme run by Founder.org. The funding was announced at an event in Paris last week. The team, which is the only British company to have won an award from Founder.org this year, will also participate in the organisation's 8D Company Building Programme, fast-tracking the team through the challenges of building Bio Bean - which aims to recycle used coffee grounds into fuel - into a larger company. Also winning acclaim in Europe is TriggerTrap, a new start-up which aims to help photographers take great images. They reached the final three of the European Commission's Tech All Stars competition. Triggertrap's CEO Haje van Kamps is currently a participant on the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme, delivered by UCL Advances.