Santander Entrepreneurship Awards 2019
The University of Essex is looking for student and graduate businesses to enter the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards 2019.
In 2011, Santander Universities launched the Entrepreneurship Awards which have now grown into one of the UK's largest student and graduate pitching competitions. Entrepreneurs are rewarded with a mixture of cash prizes, mentoring and start-up support. So far, Santander have given away £420,000 to start-ups and small businesses.
Following the success of last year, Essex is collaborating with Santander to find two of our top businesses to represent the University of Essex.
Prizes
- A total £90,000 worth of equity free seed funding
- Mentoring and support from business experts
- Exclusive access to an accelerator week
2019 competition
The University of Essex will enter two businesses into the competition, selected from student and graduate business entrants. See full details of the competition by reading the Santander University Entrepreneurship Awards information pack
Submitting your business idea
The University is now running an internal competition to choose the best business ideas and start-ups to enter into the competition. The deadline for submissions of entries is 5.00pm on Monday 15 April 2019. Please email Lynsey Dawson at ldawson@essex.ac.uk with your entry.
You will need to submit the following information:
- Business model canvas
- Business model canvas guide
- Submission form
- You will also need to provide a 2 minute video outlining the idea behind your business and how it came about. Further details on completing your video can be found in the Information Pack.
Support
To help support you in developing your business idea and completing your entry, a workshop is being held on Wednesday 20 March, 4.30pm - 6.00pm - Full details to be confirmed shortly.
Eligibility criteria
- All applicants must be students or alumni who have officially graduated within 2 years of the date of submission from a Santander UK partner university.
- Applicants can be individuals or groups. There is no limit to a group size but any pitching at events is limited to 2 people.
- Throughout the process applicants must be legally residing in the UK.
- All applicants must be at least 18 years old.
- All businesses taking part in the competition must be registered UK companies.
- Applications that are currently in the idea stage must have the intention of creating a UK registered company.
- Students or alumni must own a material share in the business and be responsible for the direction and leadership of the organisation. This would normally include holding the title of CEO, Founder or Co-Founder.