- Aimed at: Entrepreneurial projects
- Located in:
United Kingdom
Requirements
To be eligible to apply for the University category your business must:
- Be disruptive and innovative, with the ability to scale
- Be linked to a UK university (at least one team member must be a current student or employee, a graduate of the last five years (since 2018), or an entrepreneur from a university incubator, accelerator or spin-out)
- Be preparing to go to market
- Have a team of two people or more (if you are a solo founder this can include advisors/board members and/or full/part-time staff (both paid and voluntary)
- Have a minimum viable product (MVP)
Note: You can only apply for the programme once, even if you have a number of businesses and/or separate businesses which match the criteria for both University and Startup Categories.
Please note there are two stages to the application process. If you are successful in the first stage you will be asked to complete a further application form where you will be asked additional information about your business. Please refer to the T&Cs for further information.
General information
Now in its 13th year, Santander's annual Entrepreneurship Awards is one of the UK's largest student and graduate business pitching competitions. To date, they've supported thousands of early-stage entrepreneurs and provided more than £900,000 in equity-free funding to start-ups and small businesses.
Winners in 2022 were UNI SIM, Team Repair, Milbotix, Kitt Medical, Konglomerate Games and Wateraware Collective
Three winners will receive up to £15,000 funding and secure an automatic place in the Santander X Global Award, the bank's international early-stage entrepreneurship competition. There, you'll represent the UK and compete with entrepreneurs from countries across Europe and Latin America to win additional cash prizes, international exposure and more!
Do you have what it takes to go up against the best university start-ups worldwide?
If selected you will join a two day in-person business bootcamp in late October with expert-led sessions, networking and pitch support!
Once you've finished your training you'll be invited to pitch your business during Global Entrepreneurship Week (13 – 17 November).
Make it to the final six businesses in the university category and you'll get the chance to pitch live to a high-profile judging panel at the National Final in London on 7 December.
Reward
Successful winners and finalists will receive the following cash prizes:
· 1st place: £15,000
· 2nd place: £10,000
· 3rd place: £5,000
· 4th–6th place: £2,500
All winners and runners-up will also receive a package of business support.
Call guidelines
Call stages
Contact to make enquiries about this call
To resolve queries about this call, you can contact the manager of the call by writing to:
santander.universities@santander.co.uk
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