The UK’s first touch-free women’s urinal has been developed by a University of Bristol student start-up, potentially putting paid to long queues for the ladies’ loos at festivals.
PEEQUAL’s mission is to pioneer what it calls pee-equality for women. Its product, pictured, solves the problem of women’s toilet queues at outdoor events by being six times quicker to use than conventional portable lockable toilets. 
It is made from 100% recyclable materials and is flat packed, making it easier to transport and set up to different space-saving configurations. It also produces 98% less CO2 than portable toilets.
PEEQUAL, which has been set up by Anthropology with Innovation and Physics with Innovation students Hazel McShane and Amber Probyn, pictured, who graduated last year, is the winner of this year’s University of Bristol New Enterprise Competition.
The firm has also received funding of £15,000 by coming first in the contest, which is the university’s flagship start-up competition run by its Basecamp Enterprise team
Amber said: “We feel massively encouraged and honoured to receive the award for the New Enterprise Competition, it means we can get our PEEQUAL urinals out to events as soon as possible. Thank you, Basecamp, for becoming part of our extended team, your support has come at such a pivotal point.”
Hazel added: “Winning the New Enterprise Competition has given us the funding and recognition to follow our dream for pee-equality. We are now so excited to get our PEEQUAL urinals out there to free the pee.” 
Previous New Enterprise Competition winners include Ultrahaptics (now called Ultraleap), the world-leading hand tracking and haptics technology company that now employs more than160 staff across the UK, US and Asia, and Kaedim, an AI company whose software creates 3D assets for games and films in seconds, which this year has raised its first substantial pre-seed round.
Of the 21 businesses competing this year, two other student-led start-ups were awarded runners-up. Bottle Farm won £5,000 for its kit that turns any plastic bottle into an indoor farm, while Senmag Robotics won a 12-month membership to tech incubator SETsquared Bristol and pro-bono legal support from sponsors, law firm VWV.
Senmag Robotics combines ultra-precise motion tracking with high-fidelity 3D force feedback to allow a user to move around a virtual 3D environment and physically interact with objects within it.
University of Bristol Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise Prof Phillip Taylor said: “The New Enterprise Competition is not just a competition, it’s a support programme supported by mentors and partners such as SETsquared to provide tailored business advice.
“The competition continues to be a catalyst for innovations ranging from deep tech, healthcare, wellbeing, sustainability and creative arts. Thank you to our mentors, partners and sponsors and the Basecamp Enterprise team for supporting students and graduates on their journey to create value for themselves, the city and society.”
SETsquared Bristol centre director Monika Radclyffe added: “The New Enterprise Competition is a great example of how innovation is spotted, celebrated and supported by the University of Bristol.
“SETsquared Bristol is proud to be involved with mentoring and judging this talent and welcoming Senmag Robotics to our incubation programme to support them on the next commercial stage of their entrepreneurial journey.”
