Winners of 2017-2018 Scholarships for Entrepreneurship
9 Allesch-Taylor Scholarships for Entrepreneurship have been awarded to start-ups on the King's20 accelerator.
King's students, staff and alumni pitched for a share of £72,000 from Professor Stefan Allesch-Taylor CBE and expert judges:
Ashley Lopez, CEO, Department of Coffee & Social Affairs
Rupert Ellwood, Head of Marketing Communications, Waitrose
Matthew Gill, CEO of the Allesch-Taylor Private Office
Rachel Hillel, Director of Black Swan Consultancy, previously International Head of Insight, Pret a Manger, Hotel Chocolat
Along with continuing mentorship from Professor Stefan Allesch-Taylor CBE - leading financier, entrepreneur, philanthropist and Professor of Practice at King's - each start-up receives grants up to £15,000.
The recipients are:
- Regal Gentleman – Men’s grooming company
- Edvent – Platforms to bring careers to life for students
- VEED – AI-automated fashion video-editing studio
- Girls United – Football leaderhip academies for girls
- Memento – Crowdsourcing VR to relive experiences
- Focus – Software for Sketch to help designers project manage
- DeepFinity – AI parcel management for building concierges
- CryptoHaven – Cryptocurrency management tool
- Vivum Health – Tool to improve patient health data access
Professor Stefan Allesch-Taylor CBE said: ‘Once again the standard of the start-ups was outstanding and it gives me great confidence in the future of entrepreneurship in the UK. It’s a pleasure to be able to play my part in the future of these ambitious new companies.’
Josh Blackburn, Cofounder of Regal Gentleman said, “We're so grateful to have won £15,000. The investment has come at a time where we're making a massive transformation in our business and this has now made it possible.”
Lukas Ondrej, Cofounder of Focus said, "Winning £7500 in the Allesch-Taylor Scholarship competition is a major milestone for Focus, giving us both validation from business experts and the ability to take our product to the next level."
Ed Halliday, Accelerator Manager, Entrepreneurship Institute said, “We are only a couple of months into this year's accelerator programme and already we are seeing some big successes. Everyone is working so hard, both building their ventures, and supporting each other, and these Scholarships are testament to everyone's energy and commitment. A huge thank you to Stefan for his continuing support and advice. Thank you also to the judges for their insightful questions and feedback."
See all our ventures in the Lookbook.