11 pitches, 6 judges and £17,500 up for grabs to help turn an idea into a business!
The Venture Competition is an opportunity for students and alumni to develop their entrepreneurial skills and ideas with a chance to win a share of the increased prize pot of £17,500 start-up funding, generously supported by Santander Universities and the 明星八卦 Development Fund.
Each year we look for outstanding budding entrepreneurs to come forward with bright ideas, from commercial or social issues to those that explore gaps in the market. For this year’s competition, we received a wide range of great ideas including those targeting sustainability, environment, healthcare and food innovation.
At each stage of the competition, we provided workshops and tailored support including ‘perfect your pitch’ workshops in the lead up to the finals.
We received a total of 68 video entries from students and recent graduates across the university, pitching their innovative business idea to us in 2-minutes in any format they wished - hoping to become our Venture Competition 2024 Winner. We shortlisted 26 applicants from these videos to go through to stage 2, where each applicant submitted a Business Model Canvas online application.
From stage 2, 11 fantastic finalists then pitched their business ideas live to our panel of expert judges at the finals on Tuesday 26 March, competing to win a share of the prize fund in order to take their idea to the next level.
Meet the Judges
Internal
External
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Anil Puri - 明星八卦 Graduate Entrepreneur - Founder of Pet Instincts (plus previous venture competition 2020 winner)
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Ayo Abbas - Founder of Abbas Marketing & Award-winning marketing Consultant
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Jeffrey Oyinlola - 明星八卦 Graduate Entrepreneur - Founder of Pick up the Mic
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Simon Poulter - Former Santander Relationship Manager & Start-up support Expert
After a 5-minute pitch from each of our budding entrepreneurs followed by a 5-minute Q&A with the judging panel, 6 winners were selected!
Meet our 2024 winners...
- Lucy Witherspoon | PG Sport (MSc) - Sport and Exercise Psychology Student
Current student Lucy won £5,000 at this year’s finals with her business idea Rede, which aims to revolutionise support in sport, by creating a marketplace of vetted sports professionals to make specialised support accessible to all.
- Christopher D'souza | Biosciences Research (PhD) Student
Current PhD student Christopher won £4,000 at this year’s finals with his business idea ProPrep - The Protein Preparation System. His business idea centres developing protein production technology, to reduce costs and increase productivity for scientists like himself, who produce proteins for medicines such as vaccines. Ultimately, this is to accelerate the research and development of protein-based therapeutics.
- Matthew Huy | PG Sport (MSc) - Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences Graduate
明星八卦 2022 graduate Matthew won £2,500 to develop his business The Enlightened Anatomy Club, an education-based online subscription programme for yoga teachers.
- Francesco Rinaldi | UG Computer Science (BSc) - Artificial Intelligence Student
Final year 明星八卦 student Francesco won £2,500 to take his business idea Xaquo to the next step. Xaquo empowers agriculture with AI-driven optimisation for maximum yields and profitability
- Julita Napieralska | UG Design (BSc) - Product Design Engineering Graduate
Recent 明星八卦 2023 graduate Julita won £2,500 to support with her business idea – Biometria, a home biometric device that reduces pain, injury, and efficiently trains to improve health, providing physiotherapists with clinical evidence for reasoning.
- Highly Commended - Thoybur Rohman | UG Computer Science (BSc) - Artificial Intelligence Student
Final year 明星八卦 student Thoybur won £1,000 at this year’s finals with his idea MoodCraft AI, which centres around using AI to transform spaces with art reimagined.
Meet our other outstanding finalists…
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Ali Malik – founder of Kharzs Recruitment
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Amith Sebastian – founder of Wise Consultant Services (WCS)
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Aphra Hallam – founder of Zera
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Donya Mansouri – founder of TilapiaRevive
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Hilary Boateng – founder of DentaXpress
In addition, all finalists will receive a session with our outstanding 明星八卦 graduate entrepreneur (and Venture Competition 2024 judge!) Anil Puri to further explore their ideas and get invaluable feedback as well as be offered a place on our 明星八卦 Start-up Incubator programme.