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Founders and SMEs

Start or grow a venture.

Help me choose See the three pathways

Start with the CBIT Venture Builder: one-to-one support for founders and SMEs.

0% equity · 0% profit share · £0 fees, for founders and SMEs

For founders and early ventures, researcher-founders, SMEs and scale-ups, and businesses in funded innovation projects.

What makes a venture AI-native

Founders working in teams around a screen at VentureHack 2025, a CBIT sprint

How CBIT works with founders and SMEs

Not sure which pathway fits?

Answer up to three short questions and we will point you to one way in.

Help me choose

More ways in

  • Bid for public contracts with AI tender matching

    TNDRX, CBIT’s tender-matching platform, uses AI to profile a company’s capability, match it to live tenders and broker consortium bids, so smaller firms can bid together for contracts none could win alone.

    Email cbit@ntu.ac.uk about public contracts

    AI tender matching for regional SMEs, with TNDRX

  • Microcredential for SME leaders

    Leading AI-Driven Business Transformation: an NTU award of 10 credits at level 7, stackable to the PG Cert in Leadership and Management Practice. Three days in person plus an online drop-in, as open enrolment or in-company.

    The microcredential on NTU’s website

  • Study with CBIT: the MSc

    MSc Strategic Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management: a year of week-long “Build → Measure → Learn” sprints, AI-empowered, full time, starting in September, at City Campus, Nottingham. For postgraduates, founders, family-business successors and intrapreneurs.

    The MSc on NTU’s website

Track record

  • 30+

    live ventures in the CBIT Venture Builder

    as at September 2026

  • £4m+

    of private investment raised by ventures while in the programme

    since 2022

  • CBIT Venture Builder

    Technology Innovation Champion, 2024

    2024

The CBIT Venture Builder team on stage receiving the Technology Innovation Champion award, 2024
Receiving the Technology Innovation Champion award, 2024

Source: CBIT figures registry v1.8 (1 October 2026). Figures and sources

See the ventures

Impact stories

CBIT Venture Builder

A UK air-purifier maker grew with the Venture Builder, then joined a funded project in Thailand

In a testimonial, Healthy Air says the support “enabled us to enter four new countries”.

Who: Healthy Air Technology, a UK maker of air-purification products and a member of the CBIT Venture Builder cohort.

Read the full story

The challenge
The company was developing smart air purifiers and wanted to grow beyond the UK.
What CBIT did
CBIT supported it through the CBIT Venture Builder, CBIT’s programme of one-to-one support for founders and SMEs. In 2024 the company joined CBIT’s British Council bid with Chiang Mai University as an associated partner and “venture in residence”.
What happened
The bid won funding in 2025. Healthy Air is part of the project as a UK venture committed to exploring the Thai market with CBIT.
Where it can lead
Ventures can join CBIT’s funded projects as partners, or seek innovation funding with CBIT.

More about the CBIT Venture Builder

More stories for founders and SMEs

All case studies

Work with CBIT

You contract with Nottingham Trent University (NTU). CBIT, the Centre for Business and Industry Transformation, is part of Nottingham Business School at NTU. NTU signs grants, contracts and agreements; CBIT delivers the work. The CBIT Venture Builder is CBIT’s programme for founders.

Start small: apply to one pathway. Businesses can also ask about a funded innovation project, such as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP).

Email cbit.vb@ntu.ac.uk

Tell us about your venture, its stage and what you need next.

Or meet us first

Book a keynote or masterclass

A keynote by Professor Xiao Ma, or a masterclass for your founders, teams or cohort.

Email us about a keynote or masterclass

Keynotes and masterclasses