SPARK business competitions

There are lots of different competitions that you can take part in and win big prizes! Find out whether you’re eligible to enter – good luck!

Leeds Venture Competition

Do you have what it takes to run a successful simulated business? You could win a share of £1,250 if your team beats the odds

This competition is a collaboration between Spark and SimVenture for the benefit of students studying at the University. The purpose of the event is to allow students to collaborate and work in teams and compete against each other using the business simulation ‘SimVenture Evolution’.

The two-stage competition has an online qualifying stage and then an in-person finals event on Friday 22nd November 2024. Teams that perform best against the competition criteria in the online qualifying stage progress to the finals. Teams reaching the finals will be judged on their presentation and reflective skills as well as ability to run a simulated business. A prize fund of £1,250 will be shared with finalist winners.

The free-to-enter event is open to student teams from all 7 faculties at the University of Leeds. Student teams must consist of a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 people. Student teams entering the competition can comprise of people from the same or different faculties although teams with a mix of students from different faculties have a greater chance of making it to the finals. To enter the competition, students within each team need to provide their name, email address, faculty of study and student number on the event registration page.

To find out more and to register for the Business Simulation Competition click here.

Business Plan Competition

Spark Business Plan Competition – Applications have now closed for this year, register your interest to find out about this competition and other Spark events.

Click here to register with Spark

Business Plan Competition to launch January 2025

Do you have a business idea? Have you already started a business and want to take it to the next level?

If you are a University of Leeds student, or someone who has graduated from the University of Leeds in the last seven years, then you could enter the University of Leeds Business Plan Competition 2025.

First Prize: £2,000
Second Prize: £1,250
Third Prize: £750

(Prizes available at both levels, pre-start and trading up to 24 months)

For more information contact Angela Archer:

Email: a.m.archer@leeds.ac.uk
Tel: 0113 343 2551 (Mon-Fri 9.00am - 4.00pm)

Organised by Spark, the University’s business start-up team, the prestigious Business Plan Competition is open to both undergraduates and alumni who graduated up to 7 years ago.

This annual competition awards prizes in two main categories: Pre-trading and Trading up to 24 months, with the winners of each receive a prize of £2,000. Altogether, the total of prizes awarded this year approaches £10,000.

“We are always incredibly impressed by the high calibre of entries we receive from our enterprising students and graduates. The brilliant business plans we judged this year were from individuals across all faculties, leading to a diverse mix of applications, and this competition allows us to shine a spotlight on their talent, innovation and creativity”

Kairen Skelley – Spark’s Head of Business Start-Up

Business Plan Competition Winners 2024

In the Trading category, Economics graduate Zhenyu Li won the £2k first prize for a business allied to his already successful company AutoSqueak, a leading supplier of car cleaning products which turned over some £800k in 2023. With deep knowledge of his sector, Zhenyu is taking on major players such as Eurocar Parts and Halfords by launching an e-commerce platform where individual motorists and automotive repair shops can directly source ‘automotive aftermarket’ products and parts. The platform will also use artificial intelligence to help users source exactly the right product, matched to the vehicle’s make and model.

“My platform will deliver a cost-effective and technologically advanced online marketplace that connects UK car owners and repair shops with a global supply network.”

Zhenyu Li

Winner in the Pre-Trading category was Tom Milner, a final year Electronics and Computer Engineering student. Tom already holds an Enterprise Scholarship for a separate digital music streaming venture, but his latest winning idea is an innovative 3-D printed bracket to wall-mount houseplants without screws or permanent fixings. The Klip product solves the problem faced by students and others in the rental market who aren’t allowed to make alterations to their accommodation. It’s also a great solution for anyone not great at DIY!

“Having this recognition from the experts on the judging panel is a fantastic boost and the £2k prize money will be really helpful to do more product testing to improve the design and experiment with colours and branding ahead of launching Klip hopefully later this year.”

Tom Milner

Two £1000 ‘special recognition’ prizes were awarded by Nick Howard of Limehouse – himself a former Business Plan Competition winner. Nick chose Alex Neish’s outdoor clothing company Chameleon Concealment which makes photo-realistic camouflage for players of airsoft, a paintball-style team game; and secondly, Jay Brown’s company JBS Sourcing, a distributor of popular branded products that uses Amazon’s fulfilment services to streamline sales, returns and customer service.

Speaking at the Awards lunch in March held in University House, Kairen Skelley, Head of Business Start-up at Spark said: “This was another year of superb business plans. It’s such an honour to work with such talented and insightful entrepreneurs.”

The full list of winners: Trading category

1^st prize - £2000: Zhenyu Li, AutoSqueak Ltd
2^nd prize - £1250: Trib Gosain (International Business and Marketing, 2020) and business partner Reid Jacoby for Gilley, an innovative new umbrella design
joint 3^rd prize - £750 each: Jay Brown (Y4, Business Management), JSB Sourcing Ltd; and Sarah Jane Clayton (Y3 Midwifery) for Breathe and Birth, providing hypnobirthing and birth education classes
Limehouse special recognition award - £1000: Jay Brown, JSB Sourcing Ltd

The full list of winners: Pre-trading category
1^st prize - £2000: Tom Milner for the Klip wall-mounted houseplant bracket
2^nd prize - £1250: Iona Elborough-Whitehouse (current MSc Management Consulting) and business partner Claire Sutton for Swimsets - waterproof resources for swimmers and swim teachers to use at the poolside
Joint 3^rd prize - £750 each: Alex Neish (Y3 Fine Art with History of Art), Chameleon Concealment; and Dr Joshua Nivern (BSC Medicine 2016) for ToothPik, a patient-facing dentalcare comparison website
Limehouse special recognition award - £1000: Alex Neish, Chameleon Concealment

Competition News

Sir Peter Thompson Award ensures a brighter future for innovative umbrella brand

The 2024 Sir Peter Thompson Award, supported by Michael Collins of Goldcrest Custom Homes Ltd – the University’s most prestigious award for entrepreneurship - has been won by International Business and Marketing graduate Trib Gosain and his business partner Reid Jacoby for their business, Gilley Ltd.

Trib and Reid’s bold ambition is to both create the best umbrella in the world and build the next iconic British brand.

“Our aim is to elevate a purely functional product into something that is aesthetically elegant, synonymous with high end quality and something that people aspire to own because of the essence and heritage of the brand itself – like Hunter wellington boots,” says Trib.

The Gilley umbrella is windproof, with a reinforced structure so it won’t blow inside out. It also has a unique feature that makes losing your umbrella almost impossible – and a lightweight but sturdy case that doubles as a handle. This means that a wet umbrella can be safely stored in its watertight case, rather than being put aside to dry and easily forgotten.

Gilley started trading at the end of 2023 and has already seen sales of over £150,000. The launch follows a month-long campaign on the fundraising platform Kickstarter, which raised their target finance within ten minutes of going live. This catapulted Gilley into the top 2% of Kickstarter campaigns of all time, and made the founders realise that their instincts were right and that they were onto something big!

“I graduated in 2020 and hadn’t realised that the University supports entrepreneurs up to seven years after graduation like this,” says Trib. “By complete chance I was still subscribed to Spark emails and came across one about the Business Plan Competition, so we entered and came second, which was fantastic. And now the Sir Peter Thompson Award – winning this is such an honour! The £5K prize is wonderful timing as we’re currently fundraising again so that we can make further refinements to the Gilley design. Although we are now based in London, it is great to know we have Spark advisors offering their expertise and fresh perspectives to draw on.”

Kairen Skelley, Head of Business Start-up at Spark, which runs the award, said: “Gilley has it all – this is clearly a very high-quality product already, with huge market potential, and Trib and Reid demonstrated clear future growth plans with a great handle on the financial aspects of the business. The judges were all extremely impressed by the ambition to re-imagine and elevate a humble, everyday product into a contemporary aspirational brand.”

Working from offices near London Bridge, Trib and Reid are delighted when friends and colleagues tell them they spotted a Gilley being used. “Ironically, we have yet to see one ourselves ‘in the wild’ as we call it, but I know we’ll be so excited when we do. Reid and I may be the only people in the UK that check the weather forecasts and hope for rain!”