A panel of well-known entrepreneurs including Dragon’s Den’s Peter Jones have heard pitches from business students competing for a share of £10,000.
The Varsity Pitch competition took place at the Saïd Business School in Oxford, and was also judged by Martha Lane Fox, co-founder of Lastminute.com, and Jim Lawn, head of innovation strategy at Microsoft.
Each student that entered pitched his or her idea to the judges in two minutes. The overall winner was Cambridge-based company TouchSight, who developed a mobility aid for the blind and visually impaired.
The glove-based system allows the user to ‘sense’ their surroundings using ultrasonic sensors and vibration feedback actuators. TouchSight took away the top prize of £5,000.
Runners up, Jessica Mather-Hillon and Brad Chen, received £2,500 for their Matoke Matoke pitch, a fair trade company selling embroidered napkins made by women displaced by the Northern Uganda civil war.
The pair said the money would enable them return to Uganda to build up their contacts and expand the venture.
“The competition was a huge success and we had an exciting and inspirational evening of commercially viable entrepreneurial ideas,” said Rajeeb Dey, president of student society, Oxford Entrepreneurs.
“Often great business ideas lie dormant; by providing a rewarding platform, we hope to germinate a company of real significance. We look forward to seeing this competition go from strength to strength in coming years – and to watching the success of the winners.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007
