Posts Tagged ‘early-stage’

A spark of creativity for Cornwall?

November 19th, 2009

Ignite Cornwall Business Plan Competition

If you are based in Cornwall and have a business idea that could be turned in to an award winning business then you could access £100,000 of cash and services by entering the Ignite Cornwall Business Plan Competition.

How to Enter

Vist the Ignite Cornwall Competition site to enter the competition and get more details.

Initial entries are open up until the 31st December 2009. Successful applicants will be invited to attend a Training day where experts will give advice on how to produce, potentially, an award-winning business plan.  From this stage business plans must be submitted by 31 March 2010.

Find Invest Grow Funding Drive, Winter 2010

November 18th, 2009

Find Invest Grow (FIG) is an interesting organisation that works with young entrepreneurs (specifically undergraduates and graduates of the past five years – which they refer to as FIG Seeds), to help them develop their business plans and crucially introduce them to suitable investors. In return they ask for a small (5%) equity stake in any successful companies.

The Funding Drive, Winter 2010 is Find Invest Grow’s first funding event. 10 budding entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to pitch for investment to a panel of active investors (They call them FIGureheads!) who are looking to mentor and fund student or recent graduates’ start-up businesses.

As an added bonus, one compnay invited to pitch will get a £1000 grant to invest in their business.

How to Apply

Entries for this round need to be in by 18th January. You can enter and find out more about the FIG competition here.

20 – 30 potential seed companies will then be invited to a Workshop event on the 28th January and 10 will be invited to the Pitch to Investor event on the 8th February.

GeoVation Awards – £21,000 of development fund up for grabs

October 26th, 2009
GeoVation  

 

GeoVation is an open innovation network aimed at developing new ideas based on geography. The project is backed by the UK mapping agency Ordnance Survey. 

 Anyone can enter an idea into the GeoVation Ideas Challenge for the opportunity to win a day out at Ordnance Survey, but you also have a chance of getting your hands on the £21,000 development fund for your idea by entering the GeoVation Awards Programme.  Both competitions are open from the 6 October 2009 until 4 January 2010.

You can enter an idea into the GeoVation Ideas Challenge here.  To go for the development fund create a venture here and fill in the Awards Programme Submission form.

All the information is on the GeoVation site, here.

The Technium Challenge – a competition for new or early-stage science and technology ventures

October 21st, 2009

The Technium Challenge is a UK-wide business competition run by the Welsh Assembly Government-backed business incubation network Technium. It is open to technology or science-based businesses that have been trading for less than two years.

Although prizes for 2009-10 are still being finalised, winners can expect to receive a cash reward and free office space at a Technium facility, along with free consultancy and marketing support.

Participating companies must demonstrate:

  •  A fairly well developed patentable idea or technology which involves a strong R&D element.
  • A strong interest in receiving practical advice from external advisors to generate new ideas and support to develop a business plan.

Interested entrants are asked to submit a basic application by 26 March, with selected proposals then given assistance and advice to develop a more in-depth business plan by 29 April.

An independent panel of judges will select up to eight contestants to give a short presentation of their business plan, from which the overall winner will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held at the Marriott Hotel in Swansea on 24 June.

Entries will be assessed against a broad range of criteria, including innovation and growth potential, financial sustainability, capabilities and track record, and viability.

For further information about the Technium Challenge 2009-10, visit the Technium website