# Imperial Enterprise Lab

> Imperial Enterprise Lab is Imperial College London’s entrepreneurship support service for students, staff and alumni. It offers free early-stage advice, specialist consultations, mentoring, workspace and venture programmes, with additional national and international initiatives.

- **Founded:** 2016
- **Headquarters:** London, United Kingdom
- **Products:** Idea Surgeries, Experts-in-Residence, Imperial Venture Mentoring, Venture Catalyst Challenge, WE Innovate
- **Notable:** Imperial reported 214 supported startups created and £504.4 million raised by those ventures over five years in June 2025., Imperial Venture Mentoring won the Enterprise Catalyst Award at the 2025 National Enterprise Educators Awards., EarthScale’s inaugural cohort included 16 climate-tech ventures in 2025.

## Products & services

- **Idea Surgeries** — Peer-feedback sessions with up to three teams and one coach; the usual first step into further support.
- **Experts-in-Residence** — Confidential specialist consultations covering IP, legal, product, strategy, sales and investment.
- **Imperial Venture Mentoring** — Team-based, impartial volunteer mentoring for ventures ready to launch.
- **Venture Catalyst Challenge** — Three-month competition supporting 25 startups across five tracks, with a £100,000 prize fund for 2026.
- **WE Innovate** — Six-month programme for women-led teams, with a £30,000 equity-free prize fund.
- **EarthScale** — UK-wide 12-month support for seed-funded climate ventures approaching manufacturing scale and Series A investment.
- **Green Tech Legal Collaborative** — Pro bono legal support for eligible climate-positive and sustainability startups.
- **Commonwealth Startup Fellowship** — Six-month support for established startups in eligible low- and middle-income Commonwealth countries.
- **Co-working space** — South Kensington workspace, library, meeting room and studio for the Imperial community.
- **Global Challenge Lab** — Virtual interdisciplinary entrepreneurship sprint with mentoring and a pitch competition.
- **How-to Masterclasses** — Practical entrepreneurship workshops and online learning.

## Achievements

- Imperial reported 214 supported startups created and £504.4 million raised by those ventures over five years in June 2025.
- Imperial Venture Mentoring won the Enterprise Catalyst Award at the 2025 National Enterprise Educators Awards.
- EarthScale’s inaugural cohort included 16 climate-tech ventures in 2025.
- WE Innovate’s national university network was announced in June 2025.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — WE Innovate 2027 applications are open, with a published deadline of 16 November 2026.
- **2026-10** — The EarthScale programme page says Cohort 3 applications will open in late 2026.
- **2026-09** — The Commonwealth Startup Fellowship’s published Cohort 3 application deadline was 1 September 2026.

## Links

- Website: https://www.imperialenterpriselab.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/imperialenterpriselab/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/icenterpriselab
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imperialenterpriselab/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imperialenterpriselab

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/imperial-enterprise-lab
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Last updated: 2026-10-08