From a Sheffield PhD to a Global Scale-Up: How Rivelin Rail is Shaping Rail Safety Worldwide
When Ben co-founded Rivelin Rail, he brought technical expertise from his PhD research at the University of Sheffield, but zero formal business experience.
Today, Rivelin Rail’s revolutionary friction-measuring technology is actively improving railway safety across more than 11 countries. Most components are manufactured and assembled locally in Sheffield, keeping the venture rooted in the city's rich industrial heritage while exporting cutting-edge innovation globally.
Bridging the gap between academia and industry
Innovation does not happen in isolation. It requires an ecosystem that fosters talent, provides early-stage backing, and bridges academia with enterprise.
Emerge provides the University community to build skills, develop ideas, and launch ventures through workshops, competitions and networking events.
Through the Emerge pre-accelerator programme with Emerge, Ben gained the structured mentorship, pitch training, and early grant funding needed to take his portable rail tribometer from an initial prototype to a market-ready commercial product.
We started up our business after attending a pre-accelerator programme run by Emerge and they have supported us since day one. The business has come a long way since then; we’ve pivoted, rebranded, developed, prototyped and now gone to market with our state-of-the-art railway inspection device.
Dr Ben White
University of Sheffield Alumni
Celebrating entrepreneurship
In 2025, Rivelin Rail won the 'Gone to Market' Award in the Emerge Awards Showcase competition, receiving a prize fund of £5000 towards the business.
The annual event, supported by Santander Universities, has firmly established itself as a pivotal platform within the University's entrepreneurial ecosystem, showcasing the innovative ideas emerging from students and alumni alike.
The winning teams stood out for their focus, originality, and clear sense of purpose. They demonstrated a deep understanding of the problems they’re trying to solve, and each showed real potential to create meaningful impact in their sector. I’m looking forward to seeing how they grow and thrive in the months and years ahead. The quality of ideas and clarity of thinking made for a genuinely energising day. Credit to the Emerge team for the fantastic support they’ve given these founders.
Chris Dalrymple
Exited founder | Investor and advisor
Enterprise education as a catalyst for employment
Emerge provides a safe space on campus to support creativity, resilience, and problem-solving, empowering students to take these enterprising skills into any industry or career pathway they choose.
Beyond developing founders, ventures like Rivelin Rail are driving local employment by creating direct placement opportunities for current University of Sheffield students.
We interviewed William who has completed a Year in Industry at the Start-up to learn about the benefit of hands-on experience inside active engineering workshops, experiencing the fast-paced, high-impact environment of the Start-up sector first-hand.
If you'd asked me a couple a years ago, I would have wanted to climb the corporate ladder...but looking at what these guys do here and learning about the process, makes me consider that this is something I want to do in the future.
William Bainbridge
Year in Industry, Faculty of Engineering
Turning engineering challenges into practical, real-world solutions
Rivelin Rail is now gaining regional backing, being accepted onto the AMRC FerretWorks: Startup programme which is supporting early-stage entrepreneurs, by bringing the centre's world-class resources to those with bold ideas and the ambition to scale.
“As a small company, being able to work with the AMRC and tap into their expertise has been incredibly beneficial, particularly when developing our rail detection and monitoring technology
Dr Ben White
Ferret Works Cohort Member
