It was a day full of innovation and ideas at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ as , ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s flagship entrepreneurial skills development hub, hosted its long-awaited entrepreneurial funding finale! The board rooms at the top of the New Academic Building were transformed into mini dragon’s dens as the School’s most promising entrepreneurs pitched before panels of judges in the hope of winning a share of the 10k prize as well as a mentoring package to support them as they launch and grow their businesses.
This year’s judges were a mix of alumni entrepreneurs, from an array of backgrounds including fintech, robotics, digital marketing, social enterprise and ecommerce and were responsible for selecting which of ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s top start-up talent deserved to win the title. Each enterprise spent fifteen minutes pitching to the dragons before the questions flowed and the business plans were explored in minute detail. Students were scored on financial credibility, company uniqueness, scalability prospects, team dynamics amongst other criteria with the social enterprises being judged on potential impact, too.
As the day finally drew to a close with all sixteen teams having pitched, either in person or via Skye, the judges huddled round the table to decide who should be crowned winners. Deliberations continued into the early evening as each judge shared their preferred pitches with the rest of the team. Five businesses were eventually selected, the winners coming from a range of backgrounds including AI, fashion, wellbeing, tech, and gender equality. Here’s a summary of each of the winning enterprises, including the by LLM student Pavlina Draganova.
Ally chatbot (Pavlina Draganova – Masters in Law)
Ally is a social enterprise that supports young people at risk of homelessness. We help individuals to access vital information on welfare, employment and legal rights through an AI powered chatbot.
Genderscope (Yael Nevo - MSc in Human Rights)
Genderscope is a gender consultancy targeting the private sector.
True Nature Adventurewear (Nicola Klee - MSc in Environmental Economics and Climate Change)
Creative and functional solutions that celebrate the beauty and uniqueness of being a woman with the first product a ponytail accommodating baseball cap.
The Home Project (Fanny Attas - MSc in Social Anthropology)
The Home Project is a house management app on iOS and Android, allowing people to manage their household tasks with more efficiency. It creates more equality between the members of the household.
Umaniwear (Salome Darras - MSc in International Management)
Umaniwear is a clothing brand that re-defines the role of textiles and creates a knowledge sharing culture. We value craftsmen in our production lines to overthrow the North-South verticality in the fashion industry. We promote the know-how of refugee artists to develop their talent lucratively
We would like to congratulate all of the applicants from this term’s competition – there were over 60 entries this term and the quality and potential of the projects was at an all-time high.
And it doesn’t end here – all of the winners from both terms’ competitions will be invited to apply for the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Entrepreneur and ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Social Entrepreneur competition that takes place this Summer here at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳. All our welcome to come and watch - news on dates and entries can be found through the .
If you are a student or alumni who would like to get more involved with entrepreneurial activity at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ visit the for more info. They’d love to hear from you!