Sunderland businesswoman wins top praise for her game-changing virtual reality product on International Women’s Day

Vijayalakshmi Subramani has been recognised by Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation Awards for her innovation which is tackling some of society’s biggest challenges.

She was inspired by her six-year-old autistic son, to co-found TeenyWeenyVR, which is a fun, VR-based platform for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

It helps them to prepare to visit new places.

VJ is amongst 38 pioneering women across the UK who were today awarded a cash injection of £50,000 each, as well as bespoke mentoring and coaching so that they can scale up their product.

VJ said her son’s VR headset ‘not only calms him down during episodes of anxiety but I also found it helped in preparing him to visit new places if he could see and feel it in immersive experience first, which would lead to increased collective family happiness when we visit the same places for real.

"I am honoured and privileged to have won the Innovate UK's Women in Innovation Award’.

The award to VJ and the other 37 winners was given today in celebration of International Women’s Day.

Now in its fourth year, Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation programme continues to support high-potential female business leaders from diverse backgrounds. This year, over a third of the winners are Black, Asian or from another ethnic minority group,and 16% have identified as disabled.

There are award winners in every nation and region of the UK.

Emily Nott, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Innovate UK said: “It has continued to be a challenging year of uncertainty but these pioneering, resilient women inspire us to dream big and make an impact despite the difficulties we face.”

Indro Mukerjee, CEO of Innovate UK, said: “We have an incredible opportunity to make a real difference to the talent and skills pipeline for UK business innovation by inspiring, involving and investing in greater diversity. With practical actions like our Women in Innovation programme, we can help make a real difference to developing the successful innovators and businesses of the future.”

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