Emerging Technologies Competition: previous winners' success stories

What have you been up to since winning the competition?

“There has been a lot going on [since July 2022] as we launched our first product,” says Kurt. Starting the company in 2020, they spent just over a year developing their first device. Then they went out into the field to validate and test the device with customers to prove their analytics and measurements were as accurate as those you would receive in the lab.

“We have had confirmation from customers – in Switzerland big drinking tech companies and in the UK the Scottish Whiskey Research Institute,” Kurt continues. “They have compared our results with their lab results and [we’ve had] confirmation that our device works.”

Following these results, Alivion fully launched their product in September at the world’s biggest drinks technology fair in Munich. Since then, they have been talking to distributors about bringing their product to market.

What are your plans for the future?

“We have started fundraising because as a deep tech technology platform company that can be used in many applications. We want to leverage that as fast as possible, which means we will need significant investments in creating the individual applications that address market needs.”

Alivion’s fundraiser will be a seed round of around £1.8 million, which already has 30% committed, with Alivion looking to close it by March 2023.

On the development side, Alivion want to add a breath module to their methanol detector, get more distribution in Europe, and are looking into the US and India markets.

“In five years, we want to have at least one health tech application in the market, with probably one or two other products already in the market. We want to then be profitable, have a significant revenue, and our goal is to be a stock market company one day. We have high ambitions,” Kurt finishes.

What made you apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

Coming from a mechanical engineering perspective, Alivion realised that they needed to show how their technology is important in the field of chemistry – and that being recognised with an international chemistry award would do this.

They also recognised the applications of their technology in the chemical industry, not so much in Switzerland but within some of the large UK chemical companies. Through the competition, they hoped to gain contacts and a platform to connect with these organisations.

What did you like best about taking part in the Emerging Technologies Competition?

Kurt says that Alivion’s favourite part was “the platform you get to present your technology to a team of experts, so when you win the prize, it’s not just a prize, it's a validation that the technology you have developed is really valuable”.

Kurt also highlighted that the mentoring, one of the winners’ benefits, has been extremely useful. Talking with the mentors has helped in moving the business forward and providing contacts.

What advice would you give to anyone looking to apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

Kurt’s advice: “Just go for it. In business you will never reach that status of having a perfect presentation or the perfect preparation. You must be bold, and you must take the risk.”

What have you been up to since winning the competition?

Since winning the competition back in July 2022, PLT have been focusing on one of their key applications, which relates to different aspects of carbon capture. Their focus has been split between the technical side and finding partners and customers.

“We’re currently at an exciting time because we are preparing for an investment round,” says Professor James. “The competition [has given] us a step up in terms of activity and ability to engage with potential partners and customers.”

What are your plans for the future?

“We will continue to advance our three key applications, which are biogas, blue hydrogen and carbon capture,” says Professor James. “Over the next six months, we also hope to close our first investment round. And then within the first year, we're going to be very busy setting up a dedicated facility here at Queen’s – staffing it and equipping it.”

The facility that PLT is looking to set up is a dedicated lab and office space for 10 employees based at Queen’s University Belfast. These facilities will enable PLT to take their technology up to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 in their various applications. This will mean that they can test things in the laboratory under as realistic conditions as they can manage. Then they will be looking for partners to help to take things on site and demonstrate a TRL 6.

Looking ahead five years or more, Professor James says they are open to the future. “It could be a sale, or we may look to license key technology to customers. But essentially, we would like to see at least one implemented application of porous liquids, at scale and operating commercially.” He finishes by saying, ‘Something which we can feel proud of in terms of tackling climate change. Making that whole process easier and we can see being rolled out widely.”

What made you apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

Three things made PLT want to apply to the competition. Firstly, greater profile. Secondly, the prize money – Professor James says, “We're an early stage start up still. When you're starting out every pound that you have has to count.” Lastly, the feedback from the judges.

What did you like best about taking part in the Emerging Technologies Competition?

“It was the day itself, where we got to share our ideas and our vision [with the panel of judges] and getting that immediate feedback was fantastic,” Professor James says. “And obviously because we won – it was just a terrific day, it was a surprise, but it gave us all a fantastic boost.”

What advice would you give to anyone thinking of applying to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

Professor James’ advice: “Apply – you’ve got nothing to lose. It really has been very helpful to us and a great boost to us as a company – both in terms of the validation that we've got, and it's increased our profile.”

What have you been up to since winning the competition?

“[LSF has been] making progress in terms of completing an energy mass balance sheet,” says Glenn. “So, we’re now able to have a much better understanding of energy usage across our whole process, as well as the energy requirements to drive each of the different stages of our process, and that’s a fundamentally important step to progressing the design maturity.” This study refers to process in [MF1] [KS2] converting used feedstocks into reusable products.

Alongside this, Glenn says, “we have put together a joint grant application of £750K to complete a technical, commercial, and environmental feasibility study for our facility.” LSF are still waiting on the results of this grant.

What are your plans for the future?

Within the next six months LSF will be looking to close their angel seed round in January. This will enable LSF to access a £500K grant from Innovate UK to start an exciting project that means they can upgrade their current pilot units to run continuously, so that they can run multi-day testing. “The intention is to run HGV tyres on that unit and demonstrate that the outputs are consistently on spec, and we are able to have credible outputs, whilst working with a number of key partners and customers,” says Glenn.

Towards the end of the next 12 months LSF will be looking to start their feasibility study, and these combined would give them some demonstrable results. These results would give the “green light [to] the first full-scale plant, and that would essentially press the button on a Series A investment raise that we're expecting to do 14–18 months from now,” Glenn states.

Looking further ahead, Glenn finishes off by saying, “The prime milestone that we're all really focusing on is getting this first unit that we will own and operate up and running within the next 36 months.”

What made you apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

LSF had a good link with the RSC through the package of support it provides for SMEs. From conversations with RSC team members, Glenn and LSF were able to understand the full programme of initiatives and opportunities available to take advantage of.

What did you like best about taking part in the Emerging Technologies Competition?

“Having lived in a virtual world, meeting other companies and getting LSF on to what we see as such a relevant platform,” says Glenn. “[The RSC is] all about science, you're all about chemistry and that's valuable to us and a tremendous support.”

What advice would you give to anyone looking to apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

Glenn’s advice: “It’s about walking this fine line, getting that balance. It’s about the business and how the technology might sit at the heart of that, and trying to tell the bigger story.”

What have you been up to since winning the competition?

“In terms of the company, we have been successful in a lot of grant funding,” says Kirsty, who recently won the Innovate UK Women in Innovation award and the Biomedical Catalyst award. “This has allowed us to map out our future work.”

Kirsty says they have also worked with regulatory company tranScrip off of another grant and the team has “mapped out everything we need to do to get regulatory approval to go to clinical trials, so for the drug we are just working through that. For the coating [side of the business] we have had a new employee start since the Emerging Technologies Competition […] and he is working on developing the coating. Things have moved forward quite a lot.”

At the time, the company had £900k committed from their pre-series accelerator round. Kirsty says they have another two investors and a large corporate investor interested.

What are your plans for the future?

“Hopefully we get the investment in, and then this would take us up to the point when we would file for regulatory approval for clinal trials. So we would go through two big milestones with the current amount we are raising. Also to finalise and close the deals we have got on the table, to bring in some early revenue for the company, we are planning on employing three new full-time members of staff upon this round closing. Then hopefully we would be moving into new lab space,” says Kirsty.

The company currently has team members in different lab spaces in Sheffield and Nottingham Trent, so this would allow the team to work out of the same space.

“[Research into new] antibiotics are underfunded and we are facing a chance where Covid will happen but with bacterial infections again. And I think people are waking up to that, and I think the government are realising they really need new antibiotics and so a lot more funding is going into this area, which is quite good for us – we’re in the right place at the right time.”

What made you apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

“It’s the visibility that you get from all of the media posts – we did that interview that went onto YouTube and that’s been really helpful in basically getting our message across. Getting in front of more people [means that] then more people know that we are raising, that AMR [antimicrobial resistance] is a problem, that we have a good solution to it. So that is good.

“The networking on the day was also quite good,” Kirsty says. “I met a woman who is helping us recruit a CSO [chief scientific officer], helping us look for ideal candidates, so I think that networking is good. My friends aren’t scientists, so to be in a room of like-minded people that actually understand what you’re doing is a really good side of it. Also the Venture mentoring programme too.”

What did you like best about taking part in the Emerging Technologies Competition?

“After the pitch, the questions [from the judges] gave me quite a lot of advice as well as being just questions, and afterward the members of the panel came and spoke to me and gave me a lot of advice. So that was one of the good parts, and then also just watching the science that everyone was doing. I’m a scientist and I find other science interesting – seeing other parts. I’m very much medical and I’ve been medical since I did my PhD in the health side of things, but then I don’t really see the other sides [of chemistry]. I don’t normally see that type of science anymore, so it was good to see that side of things as well I think.”

What advice would you give to anyone looking to apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition in 2023?

“If you don’t get through, apply again. I applied a few times, I said to my advisor I just need to get through and pitch, I’m strong at pitching in front of people. But I think our technology has come on a lot since I applied before – we’d spun out, and we’d got a lot of commercial interest. But I would say apply because the feedback you get on your application even if you don’t get through is really helpful. We had quite a lot of stuff come up – there is a metal in our compound and there is potential toxicity around it if it was not in the complex that it is, and we had a lot of things flag up around that so we did an extensive amount of toxicology work which now we can show to potential investors and partners. So I think even if you don’t get in, it’s worth applying just for that feedback.”

What are your plans for the future?

Having secured further funding, Bio-Sep is now expanding the team hiring process engineers and others to help scale up the company.

Work continues on making the pilot plant a small commercial demonstrator for clients producing samples to support evaluation by the chemical companies who have shown early interest in the biochemical products. In parallel, a fully costed concept design for Bio-Sep’s commercial demonstration plant will be completed with the help of design and engineering partners before raising additional funds are then raised to build it.

What made you apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

As a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Andy was aware of the competition, but had previously been working in industries that weren’t eligible to apply. Internal conversations on how to raise the profile of Bio-Sep as an early-stage SME prompted Andy to mention the ETC programme, which was ideal for doing just that.

What did you like best about taking part in the Emerging Technologies Competition?

Andy’s favourite part of the process was the pitch final - presenting Bio-Sep’s technology and talking to the judges.

He recalls: “It was nice to get validation for the thing that consumes your life – that you spend all day, every day doing and thinking about and trying to get better. We got a huge amount of very positive and constructive feedback that we can consider when making our technology better and more suitable for our goal application.”

What advice would you give to anyone looking to apply to the 2022 Emerging Technologies Competition?

Andy’s advice is: ‘’Once you have your presentation, it’s a really good idea to go and talk to – and present to – people who know nothing about your concept.”

The investment round funds will mainly be deployed in opening Gaussion’s own lab and office space, enabling the business to work on its prototype and hone its first minimum viable product (MVP). Tom says: “We will focus getting our technology into real-world demonstrator products by the end of the second year (2024), so we can test and optimise before scaling up to our pilot lines.”

By the end of 2022, the company is looking to expand business by bringing on six new employees, as well as moving into larger facilities and partner sites to enable full scale EV testing. At this point, the team will look to raise a seed round of approximately £2.5m.

Looking to the future, Tom and the team want to integrate their technology into all aspects of battery technologies, from cell manufacturing at gigafactories to EV recharging at motorway services.

What made you apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

Tom explains that he and Chun struggled with validation, due to lack of academic literature on the type of technology Gaussion has developed.

“We wanted to try and get recognised by a serious institution,” he explains, “and the Royal Society of Chemistry has that in spades, so we entered in the hope that we might get shortlisted – to show that we could be associated with a really serious chemistry organisation. We got through to the final stages, which is something we could only have dreamt of.”

What was your favourite part of taking part in the Emerging Technologies Competition?

“The questions,” says Tom. “It is just such a unique opportunity to be able to pick the brains of people who know so much about a variety of sectors that you might want to focus on in the future. Having them all in one place, sharing their thoughts and challenging yours, it's just too unique to replicate, really.”

What advice would you give to anyone looking to apply to the 2022 Emerging Technologies Competition?

Tom’s advice is: “Apart from definitely applying, spend time on the application.”

Tom and Chun sat down multiple times to really think about what they wanted to put into the form. As he explains: “It helped us think through our plans, as well as it being beneficial for the application – it was about asking the right questions. They are questions that you will come across in the future anyway, so it's good to think about them properly.”

What are your plans for the future?

In the coming months, a number of pieces of work with different partners will conclude, and Somnus will meet with its advisory board to review the findings. This will inform how the company goes on to further develop a technology and decide which is the best to pursue in terms of successfully commercialising the sensor. This will allow Somnus to seek a development partner to help with growing the technology.

Looking into the longer term, Somnus Scientific is looking to exit via a trade sale. Tim and his colleagues are hoping to add value to the company by developing different products, testing them and launching early-stage products, at which point a bigger and more well-resourced business will be needed to take Somnus forward.

What made you enter the Emerging Technologies Competition?

Somnus has two sides to its business: the clinical application side and the scientific side. At the beginning of 2021, Somnus won a clinical award, which made the team keen to seek a similar level of recognition from the scientific community. The Royal Society of Chemistry’s Emerging Technology Competition came up and, as Tim explains: “It seemed a really good thing to do, and would provide that balance between market approval and science.”

What was your favourite part of taking part in the competition?

Tim says: “Obviously, winning it! But actually, preparing for it produced really useful rigor in having to make a pitch in a very short space of time – really clarifying your thinking and developing an ability to tell your story succinctly. Making sure that it's understood from beginning to end.”

What advice would you give to anyone looking to apply to the 2022 Emerging Technologies Competition?

Tim’s advice is: ‘’I think practice getting your story right. You are much more than just the scientific technology, although this is a scientific competition, remember to tell the story about how the science fits into a commercial development plan.’’

What are your plans for the future?

Sphera Encapsulation will continue to pay attention to its internal R&D – not only working for its clients, but also developing new technologies for itself. As Martina explains, this is mainly because “we are a company that strives on innovation. We are where we are, because we are innovators”.

Looking further ahead, Martina says: “In one year, we would like to launch our first product focusing on the diets of vegetarians and vegans. In ten years, we would like to have an interesting and competitive portfolio of molecules that are trending on the market.”

What made you apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

Apart from the prize money, Martina says: “The people who were going to judge us. As a start-up,

it's very, very, very important to get feedback, and to get feedback from all the judges in the panel. It gives you a different point of view, it makes you understand what people cannot understand about your company – what you have to explain better, or maybe your business model is not good enough. The critique is invaluable.”

Martina adds: “Plus, the competition is very famous and gives visibility to start-ups, alongside the marketing and PR that comes with being associated with the competition.”

What was your favourite part of taking part in the Emerging Technologies Competition?

“The presentation part was good,” says Martina. “The judges received our presentation well and answering their questions meant they were taking our company and our technology seriously.”

What advice would you give to anyone looking to apply for the 2021 Emerging Technologies Competition?

Without hesitating, Martina says: “Absolutely do it!”

In December, ViridiCO2 incorporated as a company and are in the process of finalising their company structure, and implementing their business plans and models. ViridiCO2 is working on technology refinement and recruiting personnel who can help take the company forward commercially.

What are their plans for the future?

With a focus on company formation, ViridiCO2 are planning to spin out from the University of Southampton around spring time 2021, coinciding with new fundraising efforts.

Their short term goals are to use raised funds to fully develop the technology to a commercial scale, and engage early adopters to run pilot projects and gain application-specific understanding.

Looking longer term Daniel said “the ultimate goal is to play a pivotal role in the UK, and potentially other countries, achieving net zero by 2050” – one of the main reasons he got into this area of research. With sustainability being top of everyone’s agenda at the moment, ViridiCO2 looks to be in the right place at the right time to help tackle the CO2 problem we face today.

What made them apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

The competition was brought to Daniel’s attention by the University of Southampton’s TTO. Daniel initially thought their technology could be at too early a stage but decided to go for it, feeling it would only be a benefit to take part.

What was your favourite part of taking part in the Emerging Technologies Competition?

“Winning!” Aside from that, Daniel said the questions from the judges during the pitch final really helped to validate that ViridiCO2 was on the right track. He remarked it was really valuable to understand the judges perspective of their technology.

Since winning the Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Technologies Competition, Daniel said the mentoring “has been awesome too. Andrew [Andrew Waterworth, Engagement Manager, RSC Industry team] is amazing, he has bought us so many opportunities already and walked us through it all [what steps we should be looking to take next], not being a business savvy person, I really enjoy the mentoring meetings.”

What advice would you give to anyone looking to apply for the 2021 Emerging Technologies Competition?

“Do it! - split your time between the technology and commercial aspects of your company because I think a lot of people fall foul of talking too long about their technical stuff and not enough about the potential.”

….their plans for the future

Developing the technology will put Chromosol in a good place to begin raising a Series A round later in 2021. The fundraising will enable the team to move out of QMUL’s labs, into a dedicated lab space. In this phase Chromosol is also looking to engage with potential partners and licensing agreements.

A personal goal of William’s within the next 6 months is to be able to demonstrate a platform integrated laser, with the prize money from the competition having gone towards chip design and manufacture to enable this work to be carried out.

What made you apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

“Essentially we are a company based on some very cool chemistry”. William also said he applied to the competition to help raise the company’s profile and promote the chemistry of their technology.

What was your favourite part of taking part in the Emerging Technologies Competition?

“Winning” – but the competition also started conversations with one of the judges within the Enabling Technologies category which have been useful and a route into areas that William hadn’t already considered.

“The mentoring scheme has been really useful as another sounding board and Steve [Steve Pleasance, Industry Manager Royal Society of Chemistry and Chromosol’s assigned mentor] has been great and provided that extra help in validating our ideas.”

What advice would you give anyone looking to apply for the 2021 Emerging Technologies Competition?

“Go for it ! Make sure you are clear on the excitement of your technology and be able to present that clear and concisely.”

Breaking that down, Max said, “We have been scaling our science by building the robust tools we need to grow our product in larger volumes and scaling the company by building out our R&D team, bringing in the experts we need across the entire process.” These will include tissue culture scientists, bio process engineers and computational biologists .

Hoxton Farms will be bringing this team together in a brand new lab space, currently being built in London’s Tech City, and is working towards a cost-effective prototype of its cultivated fat over the next 12 months. Hoxton Farms recently disclosed the closing of a £2.7m seed round.

With one eye on product scalability, Max & Ed are also engaging with customers. As Max said, “We are a B2B company making an ingredient which we sell to people who make the final product. We are working with those customers to work out what the tastiest, most delicious and functionally useful kind of fat is. So there is a lot of development work happening alongside those companies to work out exactly what they need.’’

Max also added, ‘‘Every single person we have spoken to says congratulations on winning the [Emerging Technologies] competition. It has been the biggest external validation that we’ve got, having the Royal Society of Chemistry’s stamp of approval.’’

What made them apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

Max said there were three reasons they wanted to apply. Firstly as an early start-up they had lots of ideas and plans but didn’t have the funding they needed to make these happen and were specifically looking for these types of competitions with non-dilutive funding. Secondly, the soft support provided to competition winners, in the form of mentoring, connections and contacts, as well as the recognition from such a strong brand as the Royal Society of Chemistry. Lastly, the fact that there were categories in the competition meant they would be judged by people who would understand their technology and in turn have exposure to the Food & Drink industry.

What was your favourite part of taking part in the Emerging Technologies Competition?

“The pitching day itself. Preparing the presentation was really useful because it forced us to think about a lot of things that we hadn’t thought about yet as a young company”.

Max added, “Whatever the outcome, having a day where we got to get together with a cohort of other companies, hear about their awesome work and tell the story of our company to a group of expert judges was really fun”.

What advice would you give to anyone looking to apply for the 2021 Emerging Technologies Competition?

“My advice as a scientist would be to think about your science, your innovation as part of a much bigger commercial picture,” said Max. “When you’re telling a compelling story in your application and your pitch, do say what makes your science cool, but don’t lose sight of the bigger picture of your company as a whole and all the things that go into building a great business”.

From these studies she has been able to show that they can preserve the proteins from denaturation at room temperature, or even higher temperatures, for long periods of time. This means they can remove the refrigeration stage and increase the shelf life of the biologicals.

These studies have been focused on child vaccines, however, Asel said “there's a possibility that they might be looking at the COVID-19 vaccine ensilication soon”.

On a business front Asel is looking to commercialise her technology by spinning out of the University of Bath. The competition has only helped her to make this decision sooner, through conversations with her Royal Society of Chemistry assigned mentor Steve Pleasance, Industry Manager at the RSC. Asel said “Having the Royal Society of Chemistry supporting us and backing us has helped us in making that step [in spinning out]”. Conversations and interest from a couple of the Health category judges have given Asel “a big boost in thinking we should really do this and hopefully we will succeed”.

What are her plans for the future?

Once Asel has spun out of the University of Bath and owns the IP the next steps will be to work with manufacturers to license the technology and undertake clinical trials.

What made her apply to the Emerging Technologies Competition?

Asel had wanted to apply for the competition for a few years, having heard about it when a colleague won the competition in 2018. In 2019 Asel was applying for another grant but during lockdown in 2020 she decided to go for it. Asel had also been toying with incorporating and thought the competition would help her to make that decision.

What was your favourite part of taking part in the Emerging Technologies Competition?

“Pitching was quite fun, however stressful it was, and winning was the best part!”

What advice would you give for anyone looking to apply for the 2021 Emerging Technologies Competition?

Asel said “spend time preparing”, adding that the Royal Society of Chemistry provided videos were really useful in this preparation.

What are Cambridge Photon Technology’s plans for the future?

Cambridge Photon Technology are working to develop a prototype; building relationships with prospective customers; and will be raising new capital later in 2020 to hire more scientists and speed progress to market.

Shortly following the Royal Society of Chemistry award, Thermulon were awarded a fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering. Achieving both of these accolades so close together provided a ‘stamp of approval’ for the company, which has given them the confidence to engage with a range of investors and partners.

Winning the £10,000 prize money meant that Thermulon could continue operating while finalising results from lab work they were conducting in Durham.

What are Thermulon’s plans for the future?

Thermulon’s main focus for 2020 is to raise seed investment. They recently took part in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Investment Catalyst, a benefit of being a member of the EnterprisePlus scheme. Successfully acquiring seed funding will help towards securing their own lab space and hiring a full time chemist to continue development of their materials. Thermulon are currently looking to work with lime render partners to carry out initial proof of concept pilot schemes.

What are Rosa Biotech’s plans for the future?

As well as hiring another scientist, chemist and intern, Rosa Biotech will be starting up and developing a range of projects with partners. They have plans to develop their platform technology, engage with commercial partners and look long-term at new markets including diagnostics, drug discovery, flavours and fragrance.

With conversations ongoing with investors and NDAs signed, RUBYnanomed have plans to raise £4 million this year.

What are RUBYnanomed’s plans for the future?

Alongside gathering investment, RUBYnanomed are supporting the EU PERSIST project. They are using grant money from the project to respond to the demand created as a result of their Emerging Technologies Competition winner status. They plan to scale up the production of their chips into the thousands to serve a customer base of oncologists and pharmaceutical companies.

What are Majico’s plans for the future?

Following their testing trip in East Africa, Majico will be looking to raise venture capital investment. They will then explore other markets and sectors that can benefit from their technology, currently carrying out human-centered design work combining prototyping with community engagement. Majico are working towards local partnerships for roll-out.

Through the Royal Society of Chemistry’s EnterprisePlus scheme, the company recently took part in the Investment Catalyst, where they pitched to more than 90 angel investors. The funding raised will go towards expanding the commercial side of the business ensuring their already 40 plus partners have the support they need.

What are Hexigone Inhibitor's plans for the future?

With continued demand from existing and new customers, Hexigone plans to expand its team in 2020 with representatives stationed across several regions.

By the end of 2019, Refeyn doubled in size from 15 employees to > 30. Refeyn were able to support this quick expansion with their prize money and additional business generated by the awards, using it for professional development to ensure maintenance of company culture, values and strategy during growth. 

What are Refeyn’s plans for the future?

Refeyn has engaged with a number of pharmaceutical companies and small-medium biotech companies, who are using their analytical instruments and sharing feedback to guide next development steps. After seeing a greater increase in interest from industry partners, Refeyn are considering fundraising to continue the scale up of their business.