- Aimed at: Entrepreneurial projects
- Located in:
United Kingdom
Requirements
This year's programme has two categories: Launch (for new businesses) and Accelerate (for growing businesses). See the eligibility criteria for each category below:
Launch
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 2017), 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 (can include advisors/board members and part-time staff)
- Have a minimum viable product (MVP)
Accelerate
Your business must:
- Be disruptive and innovative, with the ability to scale
- Be incorporated and registered as a UK company
- 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 2017), or an entrepreneur from a university incubator, accelerator or spin-out)
Your business must also meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Have a product and/or service already in the market with an annual sales revenue of £250,000 or less
- Have raised seed funding of between £50,000 and £850,000
- Have 2 to 25 full-time employees
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 Launch and Accelerate.
General information
Santander Universities in partnership with Enterprise Nation have launched the Santander X UK Awards 2022. We are looking for innovative and disruptive university startups are either looking to launch or scale up.
First launched in 2011, Santander's annual Entrepreneurship Awards have become one of the UK's largest student and graduate business pitching competitions. To date, they've supported hundreds of early-stage entrepreneurs and provided more than £750,000 in equity-free funding to start-ups and small businesses.
This year, the awards are going global. Win the Santander X UK Awards and you'll secure an automatic place in the Santander X Global Award, Santander's international university entrepreneurship competition. There, you'll represent the UK and compete with entrepreneurs from countries across Europe and South America to win cash prizes and other benefits to take your business to the next level.
Do you have what it takes to go up against the best university start-ups worldwide?
If selected you will join an intensive eight week programme of in-person and online training. During these sessions you'll receive expert advise on all areas of business to prepare you for the upcoming pitching events. The training programme kicks off with an online event on 5 October. There will be an all-day in-person event in Birmingham on 25 October.
Once you finished your training you'll be invited to take part in an all-day pitching event, where you'll pitch your business in quarter-final and semi-final heats.
Make it to the final 12 businesses (6 per category) and you'll get the chance to pitch to a high-profile judging panel at the live national final in London at the end of November.
Reward
Successful participants and finalists will receive the following equity-free grants and prizes:
Launch
- 1st place: £15,000
- 2nd place: £10,000
- 3rd place: £5,000
- 4th–6th place: £2,500
54 participants (non-finalists): £1,000 each
Accelerate
- 1st place: £20,000
- 2nd place: £15,000
- 3rd place: £10,000
The top six per category will also receive a package of support including mentoring, free co-working space and software.
Call guidelines
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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