Eight Manchester entrepreneurs have been awarded a slice of a £50,000 cash prize through Manchester Enterprise Centre’s Venture Further competition, to help drive progress in their start-ups.
Venture Further 2016 invited students and researchers from the University of Manchester, as well as recent alumni, to present their business proposals and pitch decks to an expert judging panel. The competition offered an opportunity to win a vital cash injection to help realise their business goals.
Four winners, each receiving £10,000, were selected across the business, research, digital and social categories by a panel of enterprise and business professionals in both the academic and private sector. Four runners up in each category also received a cash injection of £2,500 for their business.
Forty four entries were submitted to the 2016 competition and the winning entries were:-
- Business category, Maximum Wind Ltd – software which accurately predicts the best location for on-shore wind farms
- Digital category, MishiPay Ltd – an app which hopes to change the way we shop with the absence of queues
- Research category, CryoPhyc Ltd – a new method of microalgae preservation through freezing
- Social category, SocialGrowth – a social enterprise network and social entrepreneur consultancy
Martin Henery, Venture Competition Director at Manchester Enterprise Centre, said: “Venture Further provides students with invaluable business experience. Regardless of whether they win, they are put through their paces explaining how they intend to develop and grow a successful, sustainable business to a panel of business and commercialisation experts.
“We were incredibly impressed with the standard of entries from all our finalists this year and we’re confident that, like the many Venture Further finalists before them, this year’s winners will go on to make great achievements through their highly successful ventures.”
This year’s Venture Further competition was sponsored by Waters Corporation, Manchester Science Partnerships and CMS Payments Intelligence.