Each finalist pitched their idea for three minutes to a live audience and panel of judges who had gathered in Bush House. Five faculties were represented amongst the finalists, who were a mix of current King’s students, alumni and staff.

After each pitch, questions followed from the judging panel, featuring:

• Benjamin Zirah – GTM Team Lead at Google 

• Tanguy Lamy – CEO of Aquazoo Digital Partners, King’s alumnus (King’s Business School) and Start-up-Founder-in-Residence at the Entrepreneurship Institute

• Andrea Olsson – Ventures Manager and King’s Start-up Accelerator Lead (Entrepreneurship Institute, EI)

This year’s finalists shared innovative solutions that addressed a range of problems, including using AI to improve accessibility and productivity, a growing focus on neurodiversity and inclusive education, sustainability solutions that targeted food systems and agriculture; and next generation technology and data tools.

The 2026 winners are:

1st Place (£4,000)	Lexora Learn - A game-based learning platform designed to support children with dyslexia through personalised training.	Co-founded by Antonia Hill, Student (English Law and German Law LLB, The Dickson Poon School of Law) and Adrian Rainer
Joint 2nd Place (£2,000)	Empowered Futures - An AI-powered daily planning tool helping families support young adults with disabilities	Founded by Reagan Kastner, Student (MSc Management and Technological Change, King’s Business School)
	Sonar - An AI system that tracks and forecasts major cryptocurrency wallet movements to improve market transparency.	Founded by Eduardo Sanchez Morales, Student (Computer Science with Management, Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences)
People's Choice Winner* (£1,000)	Pattern Finder - A tool that converts knitting inspiration photos into accurate matching patterns.	Founded by Isobel Harrop, Staff (Research Associate at the Policy Institute, Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy)

 *The People's Choice winner was selected via an audience vote on the night.

 

The 10 finalists were:

Founder	Venture	Affiliation to King's	Faculty
Adam Preis	Kinaptic	Student	King's Business School
Antonia Hill	Lexora Learn	Student	The Dickson Poon School of Law
Eduardo Sanchez Morales	Sonar	Student	Faculty of Natural, Engineering & Mathematical Sciences
Isobel Harrop	Pattern Finder	Staff	Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy
Manishkumar Yadav	Drive Singularity	Alumni	Faculty of Natural, Engineering & Mathematical Sciences
Matilda Okuyiga	Rested Sprint	Alumni	Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Rafat Yaghi	Zucchini	Alumni	Faculty of Natural, Engineering & Mathematical Sciences
Reagan Kastner	Empowered Futures	Student	King’s Business School
Shaheer Safdar	FlowGP	Student	King's Business School
Vedaant	NanoYield	Student	King's Business School

All finalists will receive two mentoring sessions with an EI Expert-in-Residence, four months of AI platform credits and one-year access to the EI Hub. The six non-winning finalists will also receive £200 micro-grant funding to support their early-stage venture development.

Whilst the judges deliberated their decisions, the audience heard from the Aya Safieddine (Founder of Archif and King’s alumna, Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy) and Dunia Mangal (Founder of VOLVE AI and King’s alumna, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine). Both founders were amongst last year’s winners and have since go on to scale their ventures on the King’s Start-up Accelerator.

Idea Factory is the EI's flagship idea generation competition. Each year, we put the call out for the biggest, brightest and best ideas across the university and through a series of workshops, give our contestants the skills they need to make their ideas viable and scalable through entrepreneurial skills.

If you have a potential idea for a business, you can: 

• Subscribe to the EI's monthly newsletter to be the first to hear about entrepreneurial opportunities like Idea Factory.
• Book an Idea Feedback Session with a member of the Entrepreneurship Institute team to share detail and receive feedback on next steps.  
• Join the Women Entrepreneurs Network, a community of King’s students, alumni and staff that supports idea and entrepreneurial skills development for founders identifying as female or non-binary.