Dr Pragya Sharma has a story that involves a debilitating skin condition, years of failed treatments, a relocation to a city she had never imagined calling home, a visa journey that was anything but straightforward, and enough late nights to fill a small novel.
She left everything familiar behind to build Granlab in Belfast — a steroid-free skincare and dermatology company rooted in science, driven by love, and inspired by watching her grandmother suffer for years with no real solution in sight.
Granlab's flagship formulation is being developed for chronic inflammatory skin conditions including psoriasis and eczema — conditions that affect nearly a billion people worldwide. Alongside the R&D sits SkinSettle, a consumer skincare range for sensitive and reactive skin, and The Clearing, Northern Ireland's first community and support network for people living with chronic skin diseases. Pragya built all three because she understood that the science alone was not enough.
This is one of the most quietly extraordinary journeys we have come across. We hope you'll read it in full.
Harriet Fuller
ILR Celebrations - A Fortnight to Remember
In a hugely successful week for the Innovator International community, we’d like to extend many congratulations to the numerous entrepreneurs who have received ILR in the last fortnight. It has been our absolute pleasure to support you on your journeys, and we are delighted to see you achieve your goals. Wishing you every happiness as permanent members of the UK.
ILR is not simply a status. It is the moment a long and demanding entrepreneurial journey arrives somewhere real. For every founder who has stayed the course through milestone reviews, regulatory complexity, and the daily work of building something genuine in a new country, this outcome is the proof that it was worth it.
If you are looking for a sense of what that journey looks like in practice, we encourage you to read the story of Sean Zhu, founder of Hyper EV, who received his ILR earlier this year. Sean arrived in the UK in March 2023 and, three years later, holds Indefinite Leave to Remain — granted by the Home Office within weeks of submission. His account of the process is detailed, honest, and genuinely useful for anyone currently navigating this route.
Harriet Fuller
We have more ILR success stories in the pipeline, from founders across very different industries and journeys, and we will be sharing them with you in the weeks ahead.
...but even better, why not make sure that you meet some of them at our upcoming event?
Innovator International
When Someone Finally Fixes the Building
Cast your mind back to October 2025, and a story that clearly struck a chord with many of you. We profiled Sergey Nasonov, CTO and co-founder of Tyten — a platform tackling one of the most universally frustrating experiences of modern life: getting things fixed in the buildings where we live and work.
Sergey's path to founding Tyten travels through Minsk, Munich, enterprise software roles at Intel, BMW, and AWS — and eventually a series of deeply personal encounters with broken dishwashers, faulty washing machines, and an Octopus Energy engineer who could not quite reach the ladder rung his insurance permitted. The accumulation of small, avoidable failures became the foundation of something much larger.
Tyten works by turning maintenance chaos into something manageable. Residents report issues through WhatsApp. Engineers receive step-by-step guidance to resolve problems faster. Help desks are freed from routine admin. The result: fewer delays, happier residents, and a meaningful contribution to solving the UK's skilled labour shortage in facilities management. Sergey puts it simply — better service for people and stronger performance for businesses.
It is a story worth returning to, particularly if you missed it the first time around:
Harriet Fuller
What's your story?
Every founder's journey through the Innovator Founder Visa is its own thing. Different business, different country of origin, different timeline, different obstacles. And yet, again and again, we hear the same thing from people further down the road: they wish they had known someone who had already been through it when they were starting out.
Whether you are just beginning your journey, working through milestone reviews, celebrating a recent win, or simply want to share honestly what the process has really been like — we want to hear from you. You do not need a polished story or a happy ending yet. In-progress accounts are just as powerful, and often more useful, for the founders who are right where you once were.
Get in touch: harriet@innovatorinternational.com
A Few Words from Founders We’ve Worked With
Nothing we write about our work carries as much weight as what the founders themselves say. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has taken the time to share their experience with us. Here are a few that have stayed with us:
Sean from Hyper EV
“From that first structured assessment to the moment the ILR approval arrived, Innovator International provided something rare: not just process, but partnership. Not just endorsement, but accountability. And when it mattered most, not just guidance, but genuine support.”
Carina from HelloTenant
“Whenever I introduced new ideas or explored different directions, the team listened carefully and engaged thoughtfully. That openness created a space where ideas could be refined rather than dismissed. The responsiveness also made a genuine difference — knowing that questions will be addressed clearly and promptly removes a layer of background noise that founders can do without.”
Jesse & Jonah from Mega Dots Limited (Kairos Aerator)
“It’s like having friends you can ask for details or questions. Different stages bring different difficulties. Once you have questions, you can ask the right person right away. It saves time and money because you might spend too much time finding the wrong people.”
If we have worked together and you have not yet shared your experience, we would really appreciate it if you did. Your feedback not only helps us — it helps future founders feel more confident about taking the leap.
Share your experience: harriet@innovatorinternational.com
