SPARK business competitions

Spark Business Plan Competition 

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”

Business Plan Competition Winners 2023

First place in the trading category was won by Rosie Musk, a first-year student studying Business Management with Marketing. Rosie, a current Spark Enterprise Scholar, primarily focuses on coaching females through a subscription coaching platform, Team Rosie, offering 24/7 support to her clients in order to develop a correct understanding of a healthy lifestyle to ultimately reach their wellbeing goals.

“In regards to women in particular, I’ve seen first-hand how important community is, with clients regularly expressing their preference for team discussions, meet-ups and personal motivation”.

First place in the pre-trading category was awarded to third year Electronic and Electrical Engineering student Zachary Morgan for his business, Make Maths Easier. Make Maths Easier is a children’s educational platform for both mobile and web applications. Zachary has already created the mobile application and a website to display information about a child’s educational journey, creating unique worksheets and allowing teachers to track their pupils progress.

“The USP of Make Maths Easier is the fact that there are no educational platforms that have specifically tailored educational lessons for pupils and then convey the results to teachers and we have managed to plug that gap”.

Special recognition award Ritu Munshi currently taking an Msc Masters in Advanced Computer Science received a special recognition award from Spark for her business concept, The Closet Concierge, an innovative AI personal stylist providing customized fashion recommendations to users based on their personal style, body shape, skin tone, and occasion based on clothes they already own and clothes which they might want to buy.

The full list of winners: Trading category

First prize - £2000: Rosie Musk – Team Rosie Fitness Training

Second prize - £1250: Anatoly Safiulov – Studyply - an online educational platform

Third equal - £750: Sid Adams - My Adventure Project - a UK based Australian travel agency

Third equal - £750: Russell Ives – So Papo’s – agave based cocktails

The full list of winners: Pre-trading category

First prize - £2000: Zachary Morgan - Make Maths Easier – online maths educational platform

Second prize - £1250: Sol Harter & Matthew Twitchen - Ludwig Devices - decibel meters

Third prize - £750: Ziah Shamil Bicha - The Trailblazers of Yesterday – children’s books

Spark special recognition award

Ritu Munshi- The Closet Concierge – AI personal stylist

Watch this space for future competitions