Four female entrepreneurs from South and West London whose businesses cover education, beauty, design and healthcare have been recognised in national awards.
Mira Nameth, Elodie Draperi, Reeda El-Saie and Winnie Awa are among 38 pioneering women across the UK who have been awarded a cash injection of £50,000 for their game-changing innovations.
Ms Draperi received the award for her work at Vauxhall-based company GiveVision, which she co-founded with Stan Karpenko and Piotr Imielski.
Her company has created a headset called SightPlus, which not only improves vision and builds independence but monitors eye-sight changes that could signify an issue.
She said: “I’m very proud and proud of the team because they were very supportive of me applying.
“I tend to underestimate the things that we’ve done at GiveVision so for me it was a real recognition of my involvement as a founder in business.”
Ms Nameth, from Fulham, has been recognised for her company Biophilica which turns waste from back gardens into green materials.
Her first product, Treekind®, uses leaves, twigs and grass to create an alternative for leather.
The designer was motivated to create the company because of her daughter, saying: “The choice to bring a child into the world is not an easy one given climate change projections.
“I wanted to be part of the solution.”
Reedah El-Saie with her educational game
Founder of the multi-award winning educational startup Xplorerealms Ms El-Saie was recognised by the awards for her free mobile games for children.
Ms El-Saie, from Kensington and Chelsea, was frustrated with the constant pressure of homework and exams, lack of diversity in the curriculum and children’s addiction to serious gaming with no educational or meaningful content.
After a fruitless search for a platform that offered subjects from the British national curriculum, she decided to build one herself.
She said: “It was important to showcase the contributions of diverse characters to science, arts, philosophy and humanities and design an app that engages with BAME, neurodiverse and vulnerable children.”
Consumer tech expert Winnie Awa was motivated to launch her own digital venture Carra after years of struggling with her own textured hair care.
She said: “My vision is to build the number one global platform for the world’s fast growing multicultural population, starting from the UK. This will completely revolutionise the haircare industry by addressing the need for better education about textured hair.”
The winners of Innovate UK’s Women in InnovationAwards will receive bespoke mentoring to help them scale up their businesses.
Picture top: Elodie Draperi
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