King's College London

What is the Santander Grant?

Santander Universities is a strategic initiative by Santander UK that supports higher education and innovation through practical and financial support, including grants, scholarships, and internships for students. Its long-standing partnership with King's College London goes back over 10 years.

The Santander Grant is designed to accelerate measurable progress toward Product-Market Fit (PMF) within 8-12 weeks. Funding is awarded to the ventures where £5,000 can create the greatest short-term acceleration toward validated traction.

Successful applicants demonstrated a clear articulation of their product-market fit hypothesis, a precise and strategic use of funds, and a plan for measurable impact within 90 days. By the end of that period, funded teams will able to show one or more of the following:

• Improved activation, retention, or conversion
• Paid customer traction
• Validated acquisition channels
• Pricing validation
• Meaningful usage data

The grant's focus is on validated learning and traction, rather than general growth or runway extension.

Meet the selected start-ups

Son:Mi (Sofia Sergeeva, King's alumna, International Management, 2023, King's Business School) - An AI-powered beauty advisor that evolves with users, transforming skincare and make-up shopping with personalised recommendations tailored to their skin, lifestyle, and environment. The grant will fund a series of sequential acquisition experiments within skincare communities.

SenaForma (Pierrette Hebga Meinrad, King's alumna, German with English, 2017, Faculty of Arts & Humanities) - An ecosystem of solutions that put people at the heart of designing disability products, both digital and physical. The funding will go towards a 90-day patient pilot to complete a structured 30-day treatment tracking programme.

TrueGreen (Saifeddine Benamar, King's alumnus, LLB Law, 2024, The Dickson Poon School of Law) - An AI-driven ESG compliance reporting and monitoring tool helping mid-sized companies stay compliant, boost sustainability, and enhance reputation. TrueGreen plans to put the grant towards targeted lead generation experiments.

Gently (Jeremy Wong, King's student, Economics, King's Business School) - A digital platform that streamlines end-of-life logistics and emotional care into clear, actionable steps for grieving youth and families, with the ambition to build an enduring, category-defining brand in bereavement care and emotional wellbeing. Funding will support a paid employer pilot to validate pricing, an onboarding A/B test, and channel comparison.

Tekniti AI (Aamir Faaiz, King's alumnus, Electronic & Information Engineering, 2021, Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences) - AI-powered real estate intelligence that slashes deal analysis and due diligence from weeks to minutes for investors, private equity firms, and realtors. The grant will be used towards paid ads driving customers to a lead capture and conversion tool, alongside live pilot infrastructure.

Tulah (Ria Walia, King's alumna, Mathematics with Management & Finance, 2021, Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences) - Natural, Ayurvedic-inspired solutions for modern lifestyles, starting with an IBS-relief herbal shot. Tulah will use the grant for a single high-density sampling event targeting its core demographic, tracking repeat purchases as a key measure of success.

Looking Ahead

Together, these six ventures illustrate the breadth of innovation coming out of King's, from AI-driven tools reshaping beauty, real estate, and ESG compliance, to ventures tackling deeply human challenges in disability support, bereavement care, and wellbeing. With the Santander Grant behind them, each start-up now has a focused runway to test, learn, and move closer to product-market fit over the coming weeks.

If you’re interested in learning more about entrepreneurship at King’s, read more about our King’s Start-up Accelerator and meet the cohort X of the accelerator.