South of Scotland Enterprise Supports Dumfries & Galloway Green Revolution Entrepreneurs
Galloway based Tiny Air Limited is a technology design company who have developed innovative systems for pre-cleaning surgical instruments.
The company’s goal is to transition from being a team of engineers and designers, to a global business, manufacturing in Scotland, creating skilled jobs and transforming healthcare decontamination internationally.
SOSE have supported the work of Tiny Air by contributing a grant of £35k to help them develop their ideas.
The business has also been successful in securing a place on the ‘Unlocking Ambition’ cohort – an entrepreneurial development programme funded by the Scottish Government for talented entrepreneurs who support Scotland’s post-Covid recovery and contribute to its zero carbon goals.
A £25k development grant has also been made available for each cohort member, along with training and business advice/support.
Chris Helson, Managing Director of Tiny Air Limited said:
“We are absolutely stoked to be accepted onto the Unlocking Ambition cohort and to receive key advisory and financial support from SOSE. This will make a fundamental difference in our ability to grow the business. Our adviser at SOSE has been fantastic, guiding our planning process and helping us accelerate. At the core of our growth plans are designs and actions to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. Our technology will make significant impacts on current harmful processes.
“Each year in the UK at least 50 million heavily contaminated surgical instruments have to be pre-cleaned by staff. Not only is this energy intensive and hazardous, but it costs the health sector hundreds of million pounds per year and generates significant amounts of greenhouse gasses and plastic waste. We have developed a system which automates the pre-cleaning of an entire tray of instruments in just over a minute without hot water or chemicals. We estimate this system will reduce annual NHS usage of hot water across the UK by seven and a half million gallons and detergent usage by 178 thousand gallons. Saving the NHS 1.3 million KWH, the equivalent of over 270 tonnes of CO2.
We are excited to see where the next stage of our journey takes us and look forward to working with SOSE along the way.”
Professor Russel Griggs OBE, Chair of SOSE said:
“We have said from day one that we are IN the South, FOR the South and WITH the South. This means, we are here to listen to everyone. As an individual, community, or business of whatever age, size, structure or objective. If you need help or have an idea to expand or diversify your business – we want to hear from you.
“Since Tiny Air Limited got in touch, we have been working closely with them to support them on their innovative journey. They demonstrate creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and green thinking. They are ambitious and think globally. Tiny Air not only want to create skilled jobs in the South of Scotland, but they are looking much further afield, and have a focus to transform healthcare decontamination internationally.
South of Scotland Enterprise is here to help unlock the great potential of our people and bring a fresh approach to making things happen in the South, and I would urge any other businesses or community groups who are looking for support and advice to make contact.“