10 Startups Founded At University College London (UCL)

University College London (UCL) is one of the top universities in the UK and in the world.

In the QS World University Rankings 2025, it ranked number 9 globally, competing with world famous names like Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale.

In fact, there have been years where the university has ranked higher than Harvard.

This acclaim is for a number of reasons. Firstly, it has incredibly strong research facilities and has a world-class architecture school. The university also is home to one of the UK’s best art schools, The Slade School of art, meaning it excels both creatively and academically.

This, as well as the difficult entry process and famous alumni, make it an appealing choice for driven students.

 

Who Are Some Famous UCL Alumni?

 

Like with many of the world’s top universities, some of the world’s greatest thinkers have studied at UCL.

According to EduRank, some of UCL’s most famous alumni include:

• Mahatma Gandhi, who studied law in 1888 at the university.
• Filmmaker Christopher Nolan, known for films like interstellar and inception.
• Coldplay singer Chris Martin.
• Naturist David Attenborough.
• Inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell.
• Philosopher John Stuart Mill.
• Poet Robert Browning.
• Composer Gustav Holst.

The list goes on, but whilst names of the university’s past are certainly impressive, so are the companies looking to define the future.

The University’s enterprise arm, UCLB, aims to leverage research from the institution to launch companies set to disrupt their sectors. Specifically focused on areas like technology, healthcare and medicine, these companies are innovating in completely new ways.

Let’s take a look at some of them.

 

Achilles Therapeutics Ltd

 

 

Achilles is developing technology that allows cancer treatment to target cancer cells, without harming healthy ones.

The therapy targets truncal tumour neo-antigens, which can be a signal of unhealthy cells. By trying to develop neo-antigen technologies, Achilles, in partnership with Cancer Research UK are working to find better treatments for people with cancer.

 

Trim Tots

 

 

Obesity isn’t just a problem in adults, but in children too. Trim Tots is helping to tackle childhood obesity by developing and rolling out a national lifestyle programme to help educate children on the value of nutrition.

Developed with the UCL Institute of Child Health, ‘Planet Munch’ has already been shown to reduce obesity for children up to 2 years after taking part in it.

 

Synthesia Ltd

 

 

Synthesia is an AI video creation platform, designed to help boost creativity and change how content creation is done.

Using AI avatars, content creators are able to transform text into engaging content, without having to use high-cost production budgets.

 

 

Panda Surgical

 

 

Neurosurgery can be incredibly invasive and complicated. To help with this, Panda Surgical is developing a handheld robotics platform that gives surgeons more dexterity in the surgery process.

This not only helps make the surgeries safer, but can also improve how effective they are, leading to better patient recovery.

 

Mapping For Change

 

 

Mapping for Change is a community-based mapping company, helping to improve information on maps.

By empowering communities to use, update and track for changes in their local areas, map for good can help people better understand how the places that they live in are evolving.

 

Helicon Health Ltd

 

 

Helicon Health is a virtual healthcare provider, helping people get better care at home – especially with chronic diseases.

By collaborating with the NHS, Helicon Health is helping more people get the care they need at home, reducing long wait lists without compromising on patient care.

 

Hazy

 

 

In a world of GDPR, data is incredibly important, but it’s also highly regulated.

Hazy is working to combat this by generating synthetic data that mimics real data, without including personal information. This makes it possible for businesses to use synthetic data to test products and tech, without any restrictions.

 

Carbon Re

 

 

Carbon Re is a carbon reduction company, looking to reduce global carbon emissions en masse.

Using AI and deep learning, the platform is able to show companies how they can reduce emissions, costs and energy consumption, helping them reach net zero goals faster.

 

Bloomsbury Genetic Therapies

 

 

Bloomsbury is a biotech company that is on a mission to develop curative treatments for patients suffering with gene-related diseases.

The company is looking at therapies that can bring better care and treatment options to those with rare neurological and metabolic diseases.

 

Altimmune Inc

 

 

Altimmune is a biopharmaceutical company, designed to help with obesity and liver disease.

Using peptide-based therapies, the company is in clinical trials to help create more effective medical treatments to combat these diseases.