- Aimed at: Startups/Scaleups
- Located in:
United Kingdom
Requirements
The Startup category is for early-stage UK registered businesses that are within their first 18 months of trading, generating up to £250k annual revenue, and are growing and looking to scale.
If your business has been trading for over 18 months, please apply for the SME category.
Your business should:
- Be registered in the UK
- Be within first 18 months of trading
- Have a team of 2 people or more (if you are a solo founder this can include advisors/board members and/or full/part-time staff).
NB: Applicants applying can be resident in a different country as long as the business is registered in the UK.
In addition, your business must also meet at least 1 of the below criteria:
- An annual revenue of up to £250,000; or
- Raised funding of between £50,000 and £750,000.
All applicants/members of the participating business must be 18+.
Applicants/participating businesses must confirm they meet the above criteria upon submitting their application.
You can only apply for the Santander X UK Awards 2026 once, even if you have a number of businesses and/or separate businesses which match the criteria for the University, Startup and SME Categories.
Please note there are 3 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
Santander is offering startups from across the UK the opportunity to win up to £25,000 equity-free funding and business support through the Santander X UK Awards 2026.
All applicants will also be invited to a series of expert-led webinars for UK businesses.
3 winners will receive up to £25,000 funding and go forward to represent the UK in the Santander X Global Award, Santander's international early-stage entrepreneurship competition. In the Global Award you'll 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 startups worldwide?
10 businesses in the Startup category will be made semi-finalists in July. If selected you'll have the opportunity to join a series of expert-led online pitch workshops.
All semi-finalist businesses will pitch virtually to decide the 3 finalists.
Make it to the final 3 businesses in the Startup category and you'll get the chance to pitch live to a panel of high-profile judges at the National Final on 18 September 2026.
Reward
Winners will receive the following cash prizes:
· 1st place: £25,000
· 2nd place: £15,000
· 3rd place: £5,000
Winners will also receive a package of business support.
Call guidelines
Collaborators
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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