The founders of Revive Innovations + never dreamed they’d start a med-tech business. Urshita Gautam had studied architecture as an undergraduate and Abhisheik Kamal was working for PwC as an accountant before they applied to attend the Royal College of Art (RCA). Less than two years later, they had created and patented a compact, auto-injector device to rival other commercial devices and transform emergency medicine.
The RCA has been key to the viability of that business, says Kamal, who created the device as part of his master’s in design products: “It really helped us translate a student project into something investible and defensible.”
After Kamal’s final graduation show, Revive joined the university’s award-winning incubator programme, InnovationRCA. The founders have since benefited from considerable intellectual property and patent support, access to technical facilities and mentorship, and even investment from the university’s seed fund.
“They were our first cheque, which gave us a lot of confidence,” says Gautam. “We still use their office space, and it’s great to be around other founders all the time – everything is just less overwhelming. Without the RCA we wouldn’t have created this business. It’s such a specific field and the RCA has really gone out of its way to find us mentors that would suit our needs.”
The RCA counts famous faces such as David Hockney, Dame Tracey Emin, Sir James Dyson and fashion designer Erdem Moralıoğlu among its alumni. In 2025, it was named the world’s leading university for art and design for the 11th year in a row by the QS World University Rankings by Subject. Graduates go on to have a wide range of careers, in architecture, automotive, culture, design, film, technology and more.
A recent Graduate Careers Report found that three-quarters (74%) of RCA alumni said studying with the university had enabled them to pursue their career ambitions, and eight in 10 (83%) rated the university good or excellent for at least one element of how it prepared them for life after university.
Startup support for students is wide and varied, the lead of the RCA’s innovation centre, Dr Nadia Danhash, says. Students can access one-to-one career advice via the student success team up to two years after they’ve completed their studies, and there are employability workshops and lectures that help students build real-world skills.
Sodexo, a global leader in sustainable food services recently collaborated with the RCA on the Eats and Algorithms project, for example; in a past event, LG Displays set a 12-week Luminous project competition for RCA Information Experience Design students; and there’s an annual interdisciplinary Grand Challenge that invites students to tackle key global challenges. The theme for 2025/6 is Design for Betterment, with students collaborating with organisations including Tesco, Holland & Barrett and the Design Council.
That sort of industry involvement offers valuable hands-on experience, Dr Danhash adds. “[Students] have to work on something with a short deadline, meet business targets and work in interdisciplinary teams,” she says. “We try to cater to all sorts of different career goals after the RCA … [but] we are a very entrepreneurial university and we do attract very entrepreneurial students.”
Frith Kerr and her classmate Amelia Noble founded their graphic design studio after graduating from the RCA in 1997, before Kerr set up Studio Frith independently in 2009. “I look back at that confidence to go and start from scratch with nothing but utter determination as a mad, wonderful gift,” Kerr says. “What helped was that the RCA’s School of Communication had a lineage of people doing just that, so you felt it was possible.”
Since then, Studio Frith has worked with clients including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Selfridges, Liberty and Shakespeare’s Globe. In 2025, Kerr was appointed as a Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society for Arts. It’s a prestigious accolade that’s awarded to creatives who have made a significant contribution to society through design. “The RCA teaching imbued in me a rigour and tenacity about creativity that I feel underpins all my work,” she says.
The ability to support entrepreneurs to start their own businesses is something Dr Danhash believes the RCA does particularly well. A recent report by Beauhurst and the Royal Academy of Engineering, ranked the college (pdf) as one of the top 10 UK universities for creating startups, in a lineup ranging from Oxford University to Queen’s University Belfast. A third of the RCA’s founders are from minority ethnic backgrounds and more than half are female.
In her InnovationRCA role, Dr Danhash has helped evolve its incubator considerably over the past two decades, supporting the creation of 100 companies from a variety of sectors. In 2015, the university added AngelClubRCA, an investment network, followed by a £2.5m-£5m seed fund in 2024. “In the early days, founders were having to work part-time on the business and have a part-time job because there wasn’t enough cash in the business,” she says. “This early investment gives them a slightly longer runway before they have to go out and fundraise again.”
Those that don’t join the incubator can also access business-building support and advice. Every year, InnovationRCA runs a high-growth startup programme and a brands accelerator, for those wanting to build smaller creative businesses focused on painting, ceramics, photography, or jewellery, for example. There are also regular training sessions – recent examples include a series on manufacturing, and another on building a team.
“Graduates tell me that they had no idea how many doors the RCA would open for them, and how magical they’re going to be,” Dr Danhash says. “You’re surrounded by amazing people from all over the world.” Some startups will even hire members of the student body to work with them part-time – for example Revive Innovations + is currently working with three.
For Gautam and Kamal, the opportunities to collaborate with students and faculty members from other disciplines have been significant. “Learning how to engage with all of these different partners and taking their input is really important,” Gautam says. “It’s easier at the RCA – you can go to the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and grab someone who works on something very specific to help you.”
Their company’s auto-injector works with seven different medications but their focus is now on finding a pharmaceutical partner to take their device to market to administer tranexamic acid. The clotting agent is used to treat excessive bleeding and could be used by the emergency services, midwives, and even the Ministry of Defence.
Kamal is hopeful they’ll get there, thanks to the support of the RCA. “It really opens doors with its network, its prestige and the credentials it has. It’s been an amazing platform.”
