I'm being forced to take my world-first invention abroad - the UK is failing its founders

27 May 2025, 10:20 | Updated: 27 May 2025, 10:21

By James Vyse

I grew up on a council estate. No silver spoon. No safety net. No family business to fall back on - just grit, belief, and a determination to build something from nothing.

Years later, I’ve done just that.

I’ve invented and developed a world-first piece of hardware - a patented self-cooling beverage can; A breakthrough that global beverage giants have pursued for years. We’ve filed international patents, raised private capital, and entered commercial conversations with some of the biggest brands on the planet.

And yet, not a single pound of meaningful support has come from the UK government.

For all the slogans “Startup Nation,” “Levelling Up,” “Science Superpower” - the reality is stark: if you’re building hardware, from a modest background, without the right connections, the UK isn’t set up to help you. In fact, it feels designed to hold you back.

I’ve been rejected for grant after grant. Passed around Innovate UK like a hot potato. One fund says we’re too early, another says we’re too late. Even when we align perfectly with the supposed priorities - clean tech, manufacturing, sustainability - we’re met with bureaucracy, opacity, and systems that seem built not to back founders, but to protect gatekeepers.

We were denied a Smart Grant on the grounds of “market size.” For context: we’re targeting the trillion-dollar global beverage market with real commercial interest. It makes you wonder - who’s reviewing these applications, and do they understand innovation at all?

Meanwhile, in the US and Middle East, the conversation is very different. In Texas, officials welcomed us with open arms, offering funding on arrival. Their first question wasn’t “Do you meet our criteria?” -  it was “How can we help you scale?”

Because while the UK system rewards those with access to advisors, to funding consultants, to old boys' networks - it punishes those who are too busy actually building to navigate 30-page application forms or spend months pitching to panels.

I’m not writing this to complain. I’m proud of what we’ve built. I’m lucky to be where I am. But it shouldn’t be this hard. And it certainly shouldn’t be harder if you’re building something tangible, with global potential, and come from a working-class background.

I wanted this to be a great British success story. I wanted to create jobs here, to manufacture here, to prove that world-changing innovation could be born in a British Bedroom and scale from UK soil. But in the current climate, how is that possible?

Right now, the only real government offering is a startup loan - personally guaranteed, at interest - and if your venture runs out of cash, you’re not just broke. You’re in debt for trying.

Every penny invested in our innovation has come from me or through my network. We’ve built this without state help. But most won’t be able to do the same. And that’s the real tragedy. The UK’s broken approach to supporting founders means that some of our boldest ideas, our brightest talent, will go elsewhere - or disappear entirely.

One day, if this does succeed in the way I believe it can, I want to return and be the support system I never had - especially for kids from estates like the one I grew up on. Because right now, there isn’t one.

And that’s not just a loss for founders.

It’s a loss for Britain.

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James Vyse is a Welsh entrepreneur and self-taught inventor who developed the world’s first patented self-cooling beverage can.

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