Decisions That Made Me: Harry Destecroix (Ziylo, Science Creates, SCVC)
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2025
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Harry Destecroix was studying for his PhD at Bristol University when he co-founded Ziylo. Based on 20 years of Bristol chemistry research, the spin-out company created a new technology that can be developed to treat diabetes more effectively. It's a breakthrough that led to its acquisition by pharmaceutical firm, Novo Nordisk, in a deal reportedly worth up to 600 million pounds. Harry has also founded the incubator, Science Creates and is the founding managing partner of SCVC, a venture capital firm. Harry tells Evan Davis why his own experience of spinning out a company has made him passionate to help other early-stage companies in the Bristol area – whether that’s providing lab space, finance or advice.
(Image: Harry Destecroix Credit: Peter Schiazza, Copyright: Science Creates)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | My Christmas Mix is pure 90s festive nostalgia. |
| 0:11.1 | You know, the Christmas songs you listen to on repeat. |
| 0:14.0 | Ho! |
| 0:14.3 | Ho! Ho! No, no, no. |
| 0:17.5 | I'm all about the big hitting Christmas anthems. |
| 0:20.4 | Come on, guys. What about those tunes that really slay? |
| 0:23.7 | It's Christmas kitchen disco season, surely. |
| 0:26.4 | Give me hip-hip-christmas bangers every day. Those Christmas tracks that are straight out of Lapland. |
| 0:30.9 | Get all kinds of Christmassy. Just search Christmas music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.8 | Hello, university spinouts are companies created to turn academic research into real world innovation, |
| 0:44.5 | taking ideas developed in the lab and turning them into products or technologies that reach the public. |
| 0:50.7 | And indeed, some of the world's biggest companies began this way. |
| 0:55.2 | Google, for example, |
| 1:00.8 | grew out of PhD research at Stanford University, when Larry Page and Serge Brin were looking at how to make internet searches more effective. The algorithm they developed was so successful, |
| 1:06.9 | they decided to commercialise it, and the rest is history. At the University of Bristol here in the UK, |
| 1:12.9 | Zylo is a standout success story. |
| 1:16.1 | Based on 20 years of Bristol chemistry research, |
| 1:19.3 | the company created a new technology |
| 1:21.1 | that can be developed to treat diabetes more effectively. |
| 1:24.5 | It's a breakthrough that led to its acquisition by Novo Nordisk in a deal reportedly |
| 1:28.9 | worth up to £600 million. But a spin-out isn't the end of the story, of course. I'm Evan Davis, |
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