Celebrating our aspiring entrepreneurs

Our careers and enterprise support helps to provide our students and graduates with an employability edge. In the last five years our Venture Lab team have supported 140 startups which have collectively raised £18million in external funding. 

Learn more about how some of our inspiring entrepreneurs are bringing their ideas and ventures to life and making the world a better place, with the support and advice of our dedicated Venture Lab team.

Swift results for specialist skincare company  

Former Hatfield College Biosciences PhD student, Mohammad Alansary, has changed the world of skincare and the treatment of skin conditions through his company VT Treatment.   

Established in 2023, the company manufactures patented skincare products with a particular focus on eczema, psoriasis, and vitiligo. Success has been swift, with VT Treatment also having other UK-registered brands that offer high-quality cosmetic and organic products. The company’s treatments are now found in pharmacies and skincare clinics across the UK and are registered in many countries worldwide.   

VT Treatment have built a factory in Durham and established the first vitiligo and psoriasis skin care centre in the North East of England. Together with Zephyr Skin clinic, they have supported patients in the UK and internationally. 

Mohammad said: “Our progress was fast because the results were terrific. I am proud to say that VT Treatment has improved the lives of hundreds of children and adults with specific skin conditions.”  

Praising the support offered by Durham, Mohammad said: “After the patents were granted, the Venture Lab team supported me in drafting contracts and provided general legal advice on how to establish the business. They offered me space in the Hazan Venture Lab and helped me employ Durham University postgraduate students with the expertise I needed. The team provides regular training programmes for students and connects them with local and international enterprise organisations. They also run competitions with funding prizes.  

“I am grateful for all the help I have received from the University. My experience at Durham has contributed to what I have become today.”  

You can find out more about VT Treatment at Vtskin.com.  

Charting a path to a brighter future in space

Yuk Chi Chan, Hild Bede College, founded venture-backed startup Charter in November 2021 after several years in the legal and space industries, having previously graduated from Durham Law School.  

Charter is scaling spaceflight with the system of record for spacecraft manufacturing to enable superior space engineering and space insurance globally.

Yuk said: “We have built a powerful new set of engineering and manufacturing software tools to enable more teams to build spacecraft faster and more safely. We are actively partnered with NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, and our software is actively supporting the development of cutting-edge space systems. We have also raised several million dollars of venture capital investment from some of the top investors in the world.”

“We are opening new opportunities across the entire economy, and enabling not only upward expansion, but also for the problems we face every day to be more effectively solved by supporting more satellites and spacecraft being built to tackle challenges like climate change, natural disasters, agriculture and sustenance, and geopolitical security.”  

Through Venture Lab, our Careers and Enterprise Team helped Yuk to overcome a number of challenges in establishing his business, including helping him to recruit talent.  

Speaking about his time at Durham, Yuk said: “I chose to study at Durham due to the fantastic reputation in the legal industry. After doing some research, I found that I really enjoyed the look and feel of Durham above and beyond what other schools had to offer, so even without visiting I decided to take a leap of faith.”

Charter has offices in Los Angeles, USA and London, UK. You can find out more about Charter at charter.space

More information 

• Read the Student and Graduate Enterprise brochure, showcasing our enterprise initiatives and a small sample of our extraordinary students and graduates making real-world impact. 
• Learn more about Venture Lab and how we are giving graduates the employability edge. 
• Explore some of our other Venture Lab Success Stories and our Entrepreneurship Alumni Hub. 
• Discover how we celebrate excellence in entrepreneurship and how our students, alumni and staff push the boundaries of possibility across the University and around the world.

Top image from left to right: Mohammad Alansary from VT Treatment, the Global Entrepreneurship Logo, and Yuk Chi Chan from Charter.