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Supporting the entrepreneurial community at King's

Over 12 months, the King’s Entrepreneurship Institute will provide 20 startups with mentorship from leading entrepreneurs, revenue generating support, access to investors and accelerator space equivalent to £30,000 worth of investment for free, as part of the King’s 20 Venture Accelerator.

Supporting student entrepreneurship is key, especially in the build up to the new Business School at King’s, a sentiment expressed by the Principal at a recent launch event for the accelerator.

We’re looking forward to working with the first cohort of ventures and know that they will go on to have a big impact on the global entrepreneurship scene, create jobs and wealth, and contribute to solving some of the world’s biggest challenges.– President & Principal Professor Ed Byrne AC

Over a quarter of the ventures in the accelerator are led by a female entrepreneur and the 55 students, staff and alumni involved across the teams are of 22 different nationalities, with 70 per cent of the 20 lead entrepreneurs being from BAME backgrounds.

The accelerator is unique in that the focus is centred on developing the individuals as entrepreneurs, helping participants gain not just technical business skills but leadership skills like decision-making, collaboration, and self-efficacy.

The accelerator has also formed a partnership with the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom to help the ventures develop resilience, and King’s expertise in psychology and psychiatry is being used to look at the behaviour and personality traits of entrepreneurs.

Start-ups in the programme include Cycl, a company making LED bicycle direction indicators, WingLights that provide 360 degree visibility in all light and weather conditions; Cancer Calculator, an app to help doctors diagnose cancer, and Moovr, the Uber for cows - a social enterprise that puts farmers in developing countries in contact with truck drivers to help them get to market.

The accelerator also focuses on the wider socio-economic contribution the startups make to job creation, wealth creation and impact, and on making them robust in terms of revenue, team size, and investment.

Find out more about King's Entrepreneurship Institute.

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