Six start-up and spin-out companies founded by Strathclyders pitched their businesses to an audience of entrepreneurs, investors and experts to compete for a share of £18,500 prize funding.

Hosted by the University of Strathclyde’s flagship entrepreneurship programme, Strathclyde Inspire, businesses across early-stage start-ups which have taken part in the Inspire Accelerator and potential spin-outs working with Inspire’s Industry Engagement and Commercialisation Team, made their three-minute pitches to a judging panel.

The bi-annual Strathclyde Inspire100 event at the Technology and Innovation Centre on Thursday 14th November saw a total prize fund of £18,500 – with the Stephen Young Foundation providing a prize pot of £10,000 for a start-up or spin-out business, and Santander providing £7,500 for a start-up business.

People’s Choice

The RACS Foundation also added £1,000 to the prize pot to introduce Inspire’s first ‘People’s Choice Award’.  Dr Arash Badakhsh from Entropyst, which aims to transform natural gas into a sustainable hydrogen source, won the inaugural prize, and was also awarded £10,000 from the Stephen Young Entrepreneurship Fund.

Jonah Davies-Jones from Cykelworx Design and Dr Bernd Wurth from Venturithm Ltd were awarded £5,000 and £2,500 respectively from Santander UK Universities.

Dr Arash Badakhsh said:

“It’s deeply humbling to win these awards, and the timing couldn’t be better. This funding will significantly accelerate our prototype development, which is exactly what we need right now. “

“I’m also incredibly honoured to receive the People’s Choice Award—it means so much to me. I think all the finalists are doing amazing work, and I’m excited to see their projects come to life.”

The event’s theme of difference acknowledged the benefits that diversity – as a fuel for innovation and problem solving – can bring to entrepreneurship. The event’s guest speakers were also able to share their expertise on ways in which diversity can be better embedded and enabled in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, through equality of opportunity across gender and neurodiversity.

Neurodiverse entrepreneurs

The guest speakers were Ana Stewart, a tech entrepreneur and investment partner at EOS, and Dr Lucrezia Casulli, Senior Lecturer at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, who has research expertise in reducing barriers for neurodiverse entrepreneurs.

Fiona Ireland, Head of Entrepreneurship Strategy at Strathclyde, said:

“The University of Strathclyde, as Scotland’s leading entrepreneurial campus, has an important role to play in unlocking the entrepreneurial potential of our staff, students and alumni.”

“As a Pathways Pledge Partner, we are committed to reducing the barriers to entrepreneurship faced by underrepresented groups, encouraging and embracing diversity to drive future innovation and we were delighted to be able to use Inspire100 to shine a light on this.

“Inspire100 provides a platform for our entrepreneurs to garner wide-ranging support for their ideas and we are grateful to our donors and supporters, Charles Huang Foundation, Santander Universities, and the RACS Foundation, for providing the financial support and to our judges for taking the time to review and provide feedback on the business propositions. “

The judging panel for the event featured investors Shelley Brown from Zinc VC, Susan Armes, Scottish Enterprise and Allen Xu from Symven Capital.