Exciting news: the KQ Labs team is growing
Eight years ago, KQ Labs set out with a bold ambition: to catalyse the TechBio ecosystem, and help develop the data driven, life science entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Today, we're proud to announce an expanded Entrepreneurship team as part of Innovation and Business at the Francis Crick Institute.
To build on this foundation, KQ Labs has strengthened its team across entrepreneurship, programme delivery and founder support.
Jo Mills joins as Head of Entrepreneurship and KQ Labs, leading the programme and its strategic direction. She brings deep experience in building entrepreneurship ecosystems, most recently at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, where she created and led the Wellcome Genome Startup School, and previously as inaugural Head of the BioData Innovation Centre, where she established a community of genomics and biodata ventures at the Wellcome Genome Campus.
Ella Moonan-Howard joins as Programme Manager for KQ Labs and our NG Studios programme, supporting delivery and strengthening engagement across cohorts. She was previously Launchpad Manager at the Alzheimer's Society, where she designed and delivered the organisation’s first incubator for early-stage ventures in dementia and social care.
Faye Murphy joins as Programme Coordinator, supporting day-to-day delivery across KQ Labs. She has experience facilitating public engagement initiatives in the AI industry as well supporting initiatives that translate complex research into practical outputs with real world impact, working closely with academic and industry partners.
In this next chapter, we're thrilled that Barbara Domayne-Hayman, who co-founded KQ Labs, will continue as Chair, bringing continuity, strategic wisdom, and the commitment to our mission that has helped make KQ Labs what it is today.
We’re also delighted to celebrate Beth Massam’s promotion to Ecosystem and Events Programme Manager. In just 18 months at KQ Labs she has become a cornerstone of our community, most recently leading the design and delivery of Cohort 8. She will continue to lead TechBio Boost and PULSE, while shaping our ecosystem strategy to support our alumni and the wider community of entrepreneurial scientists and research-led ventures.
Together, the team combines deep experience in venture building, programme design and founder support, alongside strong networks across science, industry and investment.
Over the past eight years, we've watched academics and commercial leaders become founders, ideas find traction as companies, and supported over 100 companies to grow, scale and exit. The 70 companies from all across the UK who have come through our flagship KQ Labs programme have gone on to raise over £230 million; this track record is something we're enormously proud of, and it's the foundation on which we're building.
Our expanded team will continue to deliver our KQ Labs programme alongside a growing portfolio of collaborative programmes. This includes NG Studios, now selecting Cohort 2, as well the third TechBio Boost cohort later this year, and reaching a milestone with our tenth PULSE programme next March. We also work to promote early entrepreneurial thinking within the Crick through initiatives like the Innovation Challenge delivered by CSEN. Together, these programmes meet founders wherever they are on their journey, helping ventures in health innovation to navigate fundraising and commercial strategy, partnering, entering global markets and more.
However, our Entrepreneurship team at the Crick is more than the sum of our programmes. We are proud to have built a wonderful community of founders, mentors, investors and industry leaders who know the journey of a from the inside out. We’re also proud of our alumni, entrepreneurs who have been through our programmes who don’t just go on to build great companies but come back to open doors and help the next generation do the same. Our expanded team will be able to invest even more in that community, deepening our post-programme support offer and ensuring our lively community of alumni, mentors and speakers remain one of the most well-connected in UK life science.
All of this work depends on our position within the wider ecosystem and we are proud to remain rooted within The Francis Crick Institute whilst maintaining deep partnerships across the Knowledge Quarter and the sector more broadly.
Our collaboration with Medicines Discovery Catapult remains central to the delivery of the flagship KQ Labs programme, with their contribution of expertise and funding empowering our ability to scale KQ Labs’ national impact and strengthen outcomes for founders. We’re grateful for the continued support of Cancer Research Horizons, who have expanded their sponsorship offer to two oncology-focussed companies in our eighth cohort.
Our TechBioBoost and PULSE programmes are the product of our long-standing collaboration with the UK BioIndustry Association, and we’re delighted to continue working with their team as these programmes develop. Our partnership with Northern Gritstone on the delivery of NG Studios reflects a broader alignment across research, investment and venture-building focused on strengthening the UK life sciences pipeline, and we are glad to continue to work with them to strengthen life science spin-outs from universities in the North of England.
We’re excited for the future of KQ Labs and can’t wait for you to see what comes next.
