The Westminster Entrepreneurship Pioneers Programme hosted a Demo Day event last week where some of the students were awarded funding gifted by Claranet Limited.
At the event on 9 March, some of the students pitched and presented their business concepts that they developed over the course of the programme to a panel of judges. They pitched for funding awarded from a £5,000 funding pot gifted by IT service management company Claranet Limited, founded by alumnus Charles Nasser.
Architecture BA Honours student Andreea-Laura Petrescu won the first prize of £3,000 because of the overall quality of her presentation and the strength of her business concept which addressed a viable market gap. Andreea-Laura’s business, R3Dscan, creates 3D virtual tours of built spaces and buildings targeting real estate agents, shops, museums, galleries and more.
Raouf Amimer, who studies on the International Business BA Honours course, won the second prize of £1,500 for his passion for the business idea, in-depth understanding of his market and strong entrepreneurial aptitude. Reverst, Raouf’s business, is like Tinder and Etsy combined as it uses the user interface of Tinder to connect busy professionals with unique gifts and products that they can give to loved ones.
The prize for the best pitch was £500, awarded to Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience BSc Honours student Francesca Siema for her passion for the business and the problem she is trying to address and her great approach to storytelling. Her business, Fave Sounds, is a women-led artist development company helping female musicians to start their music career in a safe and business minded environment.
Talking about the event, Sheila Birunghi, Student Enterprise Manager at the University of Westminster, said: “We are so proud to have come to a successful end of the Pioneer Programme. Delivered with support from the Foundervine Team, the programme supported 24 students across the University to develop their entrepreneurial skills and thinking and to create viable business models. The demo day was a great showcase of the confidence, creativity and entrepreneurial skills they have built along the way. We look forward to scaling up the delivery of the programme next academic year and support even more students across the University.”
Linsey Cole, Director of Business at the University of Westminster, said: “All of the students who pitched at the Demo Day demonstrated passion for their idea and the skills that they had learnt during the Pioneer Programme. It was great to see the range of business ideas and the work they had all done to secure initial sales or feedback from their customers. I am sure the students will continue to build further on everything they have done so far and build their ideas into successful businesses.”
Learn more about the Westminster Entrepreneurship Pioneers Programme.
