Why does your business exist and what problems are you trying to solve?

“Often technology is built for one purpose only and any additional uses of the technology are an after-thought or response to an unexpected opportunity. We are taking on the challenge of multiplying return on investment for governments, businesses, the environment, and societies. Imagine a world where the UK’s return on innovation wasn’t £7 to every £1 invested, but £70 to every £1!

This means working with engineering clients to identify how their technology can be transferred into new applications. This pro-active approach to business-to-business technology transfer generates revenue, reduces risk exposure and provides access to a global network of experts for our clients. Addressing the three main challenges for business – making money, reducing risk and accessing new opportunities.”

If you could pitch directly to your dream customer in 300 words, what would you say?

“Would you like to generate more revenue and reduce your risk exposure just by using what you have in the business today? We have generated over £40m worth of value opportunity for advanced engineering clients in space, automotive, AI, recycling, nuclear, marine, defence and aviation using tried and tested methods to transfer technology into new applications. We can do this fast and we can do this confidently for three reasons:

1. 1. We use statistical models to quantify likelihood of success and size of opportunity
   2. We have a global network of experts bringing access, skills and knowledge to your team
   3. We design with the potential customers involved from the earliest stage, improving your chance of success, and reducing time, to market

Let us show you what we can do for your business in three months.”

What are you most excited about, in terms of your business ambitions, in the next 5 years?

“We are going through an exciting evolution at MULTIPLY, with the next five years seeing a shift to a purpose-led business that drives societal and environmental impact alongside business growth. To do this we are firstly creating a research arm to the business.

Our 4-year research programme with Cranfield University into B2B technology transfer is due to launch later this year. The lack of pro-active B2B technology transfer in industry and the knowledge gaps in academia, highlight an opportunity to understand and inform the future of business-to-business technology transfer. This is also part of our continued focus on building better, challenging ourselves, our tools, frameworks and approach to improve what we do and have an even greater impact.

Secondly, we are transitioning to a social enterprise. MULTIPLY is driven by a vision to enable businesses to have a positive social and environmental impact first and profit second. As a social enterprise MULTIPLY will be the vision we see for the future, focused around three goals:

1. 1. Re-Invest to Reach: A minimum of 51% of profits are re-invested back into the business to increase reach and impact.
   2. Grassroots Growth: As with MULTIPLY we’ve seen and know that one person can make a huge difference, our grassroots communities are key to enabling meaningful change in our day to day. That is why a minimum of 10% of profits are gifted to grassroot enterprises.
   3. Clients Social and Environmental Impact: As a social enterprise we only work on projects that have a positive societal or/and environmental impact. This goes beyond a statement to being a measured KPI with our client to show the impact our projects make.

What action would you like potential new customers to take?

“We are addressing business’ need to generate revenue and reduce risk with B2B technology transfer. We would like our customers to make technology transfer part of their strategy. Asking ‘where else could this technology add value?’, making technology transfer a pro-active activity, creating the bandwidth, roadmap and budget to do so.

Our vision is to create sustainable purpose-led businesses, we would also ask potential new customers to look at their technology with a new lens and ask…’ how could this capability impact societies and have a positive impact on the environment?’.”

Has it been helpful working with the always possible team?

“always possible have been instrumental in defining this evolution of MULTIPLY to a purpose led social enterprise. The team’s ability to extract the knowledge, experience, and sentiment from myself and my team to form a clear, direct narrative has been key. Being able to tell our story in a way that it can be heard by everyone (not just the MULTIPLY team) is one of our 5-year roadmaps. As we go through this evolution, we will turn again to the team at always possible to help understand, define and design strategies and narratives going forward.”