Six Strathclyde-led companies pitched their businesses to an audience of entrepreneurs, investors and professionals at the bi-annual Strathclyde Inspire100 event to win a share of £17,500 in prize money.
Start-ups from the Strathclyde University community staked their claim to funding in a competition held at the Technology and Innovation Center on Thursday 9th May.
The winners of the Stephen Young Entrepreneurship Award were also announced, with Dr Ralf Bauer and Dr Peter William Tinning from the University’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering being awarded £75,000 for the development of an affordable microscopy platform.
research award
Hamish Dow from Civil and Environmental Engineering will receive a matching award of £75,000 for research into adaptive lighting for the inspection of concrete structures, and Dr Anthony McGarry from Biomedical Engineering will receive a project to design and develop prosthetic sockets. received the same amount.
Sponsored by the university’s flagship entrepreneurship program, potential spin-out companies working with early-stage startups and commercialization teams that have participated in the Inspire Accelerator program are being offered an offer from experienced investors and investors. He gave a three-minute pitch to a panel of judges. entrepreneur.
to start
The total prize pool was £17,500, with the Stephen Young Foundation offering a £10,000 prize pot to start-ups or spin-out businesses and Santander offering start-ups a £7,500 prize pot.
Elliott Johnson-Humphrey from chemical manufacturing company CataNiTek has been awarded £10,000 from the Stephen Young Entrepreneurship Fund.
He said: “The £10,000 prize money will be vital in supporting our market consolidation and promoting the usefulness of our products.”
Santander University split the prize evenly between Mark Smith and Garance Locatelli for their innovative navigation system MARKED: Wayfinding System, and Kayla Megan Burns from online audio company Podopristik .
Garance Locatelli said: “The investment we received from Inspire100 will help us build our product, establish our business and bring us closer to competing in the European market, which is what we aim to do.” Masu.
In September 2021, the University received a charitable foundation gift from alumnus and global business leader Dr. Charles Huang. This transformative gift will fund the Stephen Young Entrepreneurship Award, the Stephen Young Global Leader Scholarship Program, and the Stephen Young Institute. All of these were launched in honor of Dr. Huang’s doctoral supervisor, the late Professor Stephen Young.
Fiona Ireland, Head of Entrepreneurship Strategy at the University, said:
The event showcased the transformative impact of Inspire100 and highlighted how the award-winning Entrepreneurial Campus is actively developing the next innovative entrepreneurs.
“The awards that our entrepreneurs received that night were made possible through generous donations from the Charles Phan Foundation and the University of Santander.”
The judges were Neil Logan, Senior Enterprise Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, Michelle Kinnaird, Head of Investment at Scottish Enterprise, and Paul Wilson, CEO and Founder of the Smart Things Accelerator Center. It was Mr.
Since the Stephen Young Entrepreneurship Award for Outstanding Business Idea Research Paper was launched in 2022, £450,000 has been awarded to academic entrepreneurs who have created impact from their research.
