Venture competitions – An excellent first step for students

University-run venture competitions are a great opportunity for students (and often staff and alumni) to pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges for financial and non-financial help. The main aims are to boost student entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills, but they have several other positive effects.

Since their inception by a group of MBA students in the United States in 1984, these competitions have grown in number and quality at universities around the world and are now an excellent first step for a student wanting to start their own business while at university.

Part of the increased interest is that it is a great outlet for students wanting to try entrepreneurship for real after a many-fold rise of on-curricular entrepreneurship courses at universities since the 1980s.

The judging panels often consist of both university staff and external judges such as entrepreneurs and investors.

You may be expected to pitch to them either in person, or by submitting a YouTube video, a slide deck, a written business plan, or a combination, and while winning the money is the primary goal – prize pots are up to US$1million – there is often other useful support provided.

There could be incubator space to work on your idea, or even simply a hot desk you can use as a base and where you can network with others. Other services such as access to accountants, IP lawyers and free banking can often be included.

Experienced mentors may be provided to help you forward your idea, for example the “Pitch it Easy” competition at City University, London has a £100,000 (US$128,000) prize and the backing of easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who works with the winners to mentor their business. This network building is a key benefit of entering a competition.

Attracting investment

There are also other benefits for the student founder: a strong performance in a competition can act as encouragement for other investors to put in some money as well as providing good publicity which might bring you to the attention of potential collaborators and customers as well as funders.

Even before you approach other investors, a relatively small amount of money from a competition gives you the chance to prove yourself and de-risk the idea, making it more investible – such as using the money to apply for a patent, do some customer testing or hire someone to develop an app – so your next pitch to investors can be more confident and evidence-based.

Strong performance in a competition can also unlock other benefits. For example, the winners of the INSEAD Venture Competition have automatic access to other pitching events across Europe, and other competitions give access to accelerator programmes or professional training activities.

What’s in it for universities?

As well as offering benefits for student entrepreneurs, the competitions can be used to advance university agendas. For example, they can support ventures that contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the rankings of which, compiled by Times Higher Education, are now published on an annual basis.

Many university competitions have a category for social enterprise, and some even a separate competition for social ventures, but many tech businesses can also address SDGs such as food security or clean energy, and are eligible for competitions such as the MIT Clean Energy Prize, which has supported more than 280 teams since 2007.

Externally, there are also other competitions students can enter; the CleanTech Challenge is for students worldwide who are developing clean technology ideas. The Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition is also directed at all young entrepreneurs who are addressing any of the SDGs.

There are many good examples of these types of competition. The University of Manchester Venture Further Competition has been running for 20 years, with environment, healthcare, services, social and technology categories.

Metofico, a winner in 2024 with a venture focusing on life science data analysis, subsequently entered the well-known US accelerator the Y Combinator, showing how winning a venture competition can lead to further opportunities.

Assetcool raised £2.25 million in equity fundraising to allow them to roll out their power line coating technology that reduces emissions. MishiPay raised nearly £10 million in equity funding and their self-checkout technology is in two NBA and NHL sports stadiums in Toronto, Canada, and all UK Flying Tiger stores.

Giving back

Competitions are often supported by external funding, including well-known companies, and are also a way that alumni donors can give back to the university in a meaningful way – University of Manchester alumnus Dr Eli Harari, founder of SanDisk, supports a competition aimed at novel semiconductor material graphene inventions.

While many are restricted to current staff, students and recent alumni, some are open worldwide, such as Rice University in the United States, with the latest winner, gaining US$150,000, being Protein Pints (a high protein low sugar ice cream).

Some competitions are regional – The Mayor’s Entrepreneur Competition is for ideas that make London better and is open to students and recent alumni of any university institution in London.

The Bangkok Business Challenge, the longest running student venture competition in Asia, is open to a range of Asian Universities and attracted 276 teams in 2024.

The Santander X UK Awards, for students and graduates, has provided more than £1 million to student businesses since it was founded and is supported by many high-profile entrepreneurs.

In Africa, The Pitch UCT at the University of Cape Town is a student-run competition in its ninth year with the 2023 winner being Amanzi Impilo, a business that aims to construct grey water recycling systems. Hanga PitchFest in Rwanda is open to young tech entrepreneurs who pitch live to an audience of potential investors.

Business-university links

Venture competitions have risen to the point that they are considered the first taste of practical entrepreneurship at university for a student with a business idea. Their popularity means they can be used to encourage innovation in specific areas from tech to social innovations as well as more general competitions.

Recent academic research suggests competitions are both effective as a way of supporting student startups and an excellent learning experience for students as they offer as close to ‘real world’ conditions as it is possible to get at university.

They allow the university and business community, including entrepreneurs and investors, to form a more permanent network helping the university to become more outward-facing, facilitating other collaborations for innovation, and often lead to positive press coverage.

Even if you don’t win, you will still gain valuable feedback from experts which can be used to improve your pitch for next time – and there are plenty of other competitions to enter both inside and outside of the university.

Dr Robert A Phillips is a senior lecturer (and a judge of the University of Manchester Venture Further Competition) at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, United Kingdom.

This article is a commentary. Commentary articles are the opinion of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of University World News.