Partner Article

Students challenged to submit world leading ideas

A competition to encourage undergraduates and recent graduates to establish world leading, market defining companies and brands has been launched.

RBS, LinkedIn and Find Invest Grow, a venture capital firm focused on the student and recent graduate market have launched EnterprisingU, an initiative open to any student or graduate of the past five years with the drive to start and succeed in business.

Examples of student founded companies include Innocent Smoothies, Last.fm and Moneysupermarket.com.

The competition follows on from Chancellor George Osborne’s ‘Enterprise Loan’ for students, announced in the Budget, and includes a first place prize of £25,000.

Submissions for the competition will be made through FIG’s platform, a free-to-use online tool that provides the framework to build and critically assess the viability of entrants’ business plans.

The application process in itself, goes beyond mere form filling, helping to cultivate business planning skills, crucial to young entrepreneurs.

A shortlist will be selected by a judging panel made up of active angel investors and sponsors.

Successful applicants will attend workshops run by FIG on pitching, accounting and legal advice, networking and business banking, and from there, up to ten teams will be selected to pitch at an investor day.

Peter Ibbetson, Small Business Chairman, NatWest and RBS: “The future of our economy relies on a new generation of start-up businesses.

“No one would disagree that the UK wants, and needs, more entrepreneurs, and our universities are full of students ambitious to become chief executives of their own companies rather than starting at the bottom of someone else’s.

“RBS EnterprisingU is an important initiative that helps young entrepreneurs not only showcase their business ideas, win cash and attract investment, but also develop the skill sets required to be a successful business founder.”

James King, Founder, Find Invest Grow: “It’s more important than ever to facilitate students’ and graduates’ entrepreneurial mettle and apply this in such a way that is attractive to the investment community.

“We are looking to uncover businesses that makes angel investors sit up and take notice, businesses with high -growth potential and with the ability to generate significant returns.

“We are looking for business acumen and success in the real world; viability is the name of the game.”

Those interested in applying need to submit their proposals by June 15 via the FIG online too, here.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .