Winners announced! Santander University of Brighton Ideas Competition 2018 Final

Photos: Phil Bedford

The Santander University of Brighton Ideas Competition Final 2018 took place 10 May 2018 at Moulsecoomb campus.

Five finalists pitched their business ideas to a panel of judges from the local business community.

As well as the cash prizes provided by Santander Universities, a generous package of business startup support was also on offer from sponsors Brighton Gin, Enterprise Nation, Inngot, MDHUB, Mayo Wynne Baxter, Swindells Chartered Accountants and Exhibit Printing.

Clare Griffiths, Business Development Manager (Entrepreneurship), said: “All of the finalists worked really hard on their pitches and performed brilliantly. It was an exciting final and the judges found it difficult to decide. We are looking forward to continuing to work with the finalists, along with the hundreds of other student and graduate entrepreneurs we support each year, to see their ideas become a reality.”

First Prize £2000: Harry Kimberley-Bowen (Student – Brighton Business School), Frugly
Frugly has one simple and key objective: to tackle the current and massive issue of food waste by creating healthy, nutritious and affordable juices. In the UK alone, 7 million tonnes of food is thrown away each year with up to 40% of fruit and veg not even making it from farms to supermarket shelves due to its ugly appearance, despite still being beautiful on the inside. Frugly aims to intercept wasted produce, like the 1.4 million binned bruised bananas every single day, and turn this rescued fruit and veg into wonderful juice.

Second Prize £1000: Tom Meades (Graduate – School of Art) and Pawan Saunya, Gomi
The Gomi team want to make zero-waste electronics products out of locally sourced recycled plastic. Gomi, meaning ‘garbage’ in Japanese, reflects their ultimate aim of transforming everyday waste streams into clean and minimal, high-end design products. Through their work, the Gomi team want to show that recycled plastics can be processed into a far more valuable material than what is currently being achieved, through a careful combination of handcrafted and computer-aided design.

Third Prize £500: Debbie Wright (Student – Brighton Business School), The Lamb Bag
The Lamb Bag is an all-in-one bag for mums and dads travelling with their babies. The bag consists of useful compartments and pockets to maximise the space and to organise every item needed. It hooks onto a buggy, or can be worn over the shoulder. The bag is unisex.

Runner Up £250: Emily Dunlop, Lucy Edmonds, Shannon Lester-Murphy, and Tanya Vince (Students – School of Sport and Service Management), BarBeacon
BarBeacon aims to dramatically speed up service for pubs, bars, and any type of predominantly beverage sales service-based business. The BarBeacon team intends to develop their own app which will be installed on customised smart watches, using an innovative technology to accelerate payments.

Runner Up £250: Bernardo Sebastião (Student – School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics), Pen Friend Connection
Pen Friend Connection is a global, social enterprise which connects secondary school students who are learning English as a Second Language, with students who are doing exactly the same thing, albeit on the other side of the world, emerged in a completely different culture and social environment. Currently, Pen Friend Connection has 400 students participating from schools in Portugal, India, Mongolia, and Greenland.

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