From the outside, Technovative Solutions looks like many other fast-growing tech companies clustered around Manchester Science Park. Glass-fronted meeting rooms, quiet clusters of engineers, and the faint hum of servers. But step inside, and you find a firm that has built its success not through the lone-hero approach often associated with start-ups, but through long-term collaboration across borders.
The company began life in 2012 as a one-person consultancy founded by materials scientist Dr Fahim Chowdhury. In the early days, the work was modest: helping other organisations shape research ideas and apply for innovation grants.
Dr Chowdhury said:
I never expected it to become what it is now. It was supposed to be one company doing one thing. But innovation has a way of pulling you in new directions.
Technovative Solutions now employs around 150 people, spread between Manchester and a software engineering hub overseas. If growth continues at its current pace, the workforce is expected to reach 250 by the end of 2026. Technovative Solutions progress has been anything but linear. The firm has branched into:
- sustainability and circularity
- digital healthcare
- renewable energy
- disaster resilience
More recently they have been working in the complex field of digital product passports, which are set to become mandatory for many products entering the EU market.
Building through collaboration
At the centre of Technovative Solutions’ rise is a decade-long engagement with Horizon Europe and its predecessor, Horizon 2020. The company has secured 11 grants backed by the Horizon Europe Guarantee, along with a series of earlier European-funded research projects. These have brought them into partnership with universities, small and medium-sized enterprises, national research bodies and multinational manufacturers across continents.
For the company’s chief operating officer, Dr Tamanna Khan, the value of this international network is clear. She said:
You can’t achieve everything inside one organisation. Collaboration is where the real innovation happens.
Her point is echoed across the business. The projects the firm works on, whether improving supply-chain transparency for batteries or tracking the carbon footprint of textiles, need specialists from multiple countries, industries and disciplines. No single company could develop such systems alone.
A global problem, a Manchester response
One of Technovative Solutions’ most significant areas of work is the development of digital product passports. These are essentially data-rich records that follow a product from production to recycling, making it possible to track carbon impact, material origins and repairability.
The first major implementation will come in 2027, when all high-voltage batteries sold in the EU will be required by law to carry such a passport. That change has already prompted collaborations between the Manchester firm and some of Europe’s largest car manufacturers, including:
- Mercedes-Benz
- Ford
- Stellantis (owner of Fiat, Vauxhall, Peugeot and others)
On paper, these companies are fierce competitors. But in practice, progress on sustainability requires them to work together.
As Dr Khan said:
Without collaboration, each company would be working in silos and the goals we are trying to achieve; circularity, net zero, would simply not happen.
From Manchester to Bangladesh and beyond
While much of this work is focused on Europe, Technovative Solutions has recently begun advising national governments, including Bangladesh, on how to prepare industries for new sustainability reporting standards.
Such expansion illustrates the global logic of collaboration. Before products can circulate responsibly, information must circulate freely too. That requires infrastructure, trust and common frameworks; things that rarely happen without coordination at international scale.
A different kind of leadership
Inside the company, collaboration takes a more personal form. Many employees spoke about a culture of autonomy unusual in the tech sector. Rather than setting direction from the top, Chowdhury encourages staff to develop their own ideas and shape project areas.
The result, according to managing director Sahag Salauddin, is genuine innovation. He said:
People feel like they can contribute, experiment, and create. It means ideas emerge from everywhere, not just one place.
This approach has directly led to four spin-out companies, each specialising in a particular technology area. It is, as Salauddin puts it:
a company that grows by letting people grow.
Chase the problem you want to solve
For every successful bid, there are three that don’t make it. Chaudhry says:
It’s not all roses. It’s still considered a high success rate, but you have to be comfortable with failure along the way.
For those considering applying, the advice from Technovative Solutions is simple: Don’t chase the funding, chase the problem you want to solve. The partnerships will follow.
UK companies and research organisations can still participate in Horizon Europe. Guidance, support and sector-specific advice is available through National Contact Points.
UK companies and research organisations can participate in Horizon Europe.
Explore the UK’s official Horizon Europe Hub to help guide you on your research and innovation journey.