And that’s a wrap! On November 12th, in the lead up to Global Entrepreneurship Week, the Tata Varsity Pitch Competition 2024 came to an all exciting close at the Grand Final. Hosted by NACUE at the Coin Street Conference Centre, we saw our 7 Finalists pitch-off for this year’s national title by presenting their innovative solutions and demonstrating their start-up’s potential.
Our Finalists had already faced tough competition at the Semi-Finals, where they were each selected to represent their category by judges from companies within the Tata Group including JLR, IHCL, Tata Elxsi, Tata Communications, TCS, and Tata Consumer Product
The competition only got more intense, as they battled it out to win the grand prize of £15,000 equity-free funding to accelerate their businesses. With headline sponsor Tata Ltd, Tata Group companies, partners, and members from the wider NACUE community in attendance, the afternoon was full of excitement as everyone waited to find out who would be crowned this year’s Tata #VP2024 winner.
We were delighted to welcome an esteemed panel of judges:
● Tim Jones, CBE, Executive Director of Tata Ltd
● Morgan Meaker, Senior Writer at WIRED UK
● Hushpreet Dhaliwal, Deputy Director-Defence & Security at The Alan Turing Institute
The quality of pitches this year was exceptional, with all Finalists demonstrating clear passion and understanding of their problem areas. The judging panel asked challenging questions, providing participants with the opportunity to further demonstrate their market knowledge and business models.
The Pitches
The first Finalist of the afternoon was University of Nottingham student Manu Parasuraman, pitching InfoTik as winner of this year’s Online Peoples’ Vote. InfoTik had gathered the most online votes from the public, which fast-tracked them to the Grand Final. Infotik aims to provide videos that are informative and fact checked so that your time spent scrolling is not wasted. They are on a mission to tackle social media addiction and turn scrolling into learning.
SolarSub’s pitch followed for the Digital & Technical Category with JLR, pitched their innovative passive cooling system for floating solar panels. Founders Sebastiaan Schalkwijk and James Taylor from The University of Edinburgh presented how their patent pending solution, SolarSub passively extracts heat build up from the solar panels and dissipates the heat into the surrounding waterbody, increasing panel efficiency by up to 20%.
Next up was this year’s Creative & Design Category with Tata Elxsi, showcasing Mude Clothing who are providing innovative solutions for individuals reliant on medical devices. Co-founded by Kat Pohorecka from Edinburgh Napier University and Aidan McGeary from Queen’s University Belfast, Mude empowers and enables their users to express style and personality without compromise, ensuring comfort, security, and confidence with every garment.
Sarah Moffatt Stephens PHD student at Institute of Development Studies and University of London Alumn was next, pitching Smart Justice for the Social Impact Category with TCS. Smart Justice is a legal technology social enterprise committed to leveraging technology to increase access to justice for underserved communities. Their flagship product Dada Wakili is a digital legal assistance available on a mobile phone to help women in Tanzania understand and claim their rightt, promoting legal empowerment, justice and poverty relief to women across Tanzania and beyond.
Next we saw AiKNIT for the Health & Wellbeing with Tata Communications. AiKNIT fuses digital material practices, cutting edge technology, and a deep empathy for the human body, to create a paradigm shifting experience in the approach to healing musculoskeletal disorders. They are creating wearable devices that are customisable, tailor-made and condition adaptive for improved patient experience. Founder Sophie Richter is from Imperial College London and Royal College of Art.
The penultimate pitch of the afternoon welcomed Della Yellow to the stage for the Early-Stage Category with IHCL. Imperial College London student Ella Cope dubbed her solution the “Duolingo for Sewing”. With an innovative app, Della Yellow teaches sustainable crafting skills by providing expert led, easy-to-follow tutorials using gamification to encourage consistent progress. Their supportive community brings crafters together, allowing members to share tips and feel connected.
And last but not least, Chloe So from Imperial College London and Royal College of Art presented PulpaTronics for the Genuine Innovation Category with Tata Consumer Products. PulpaTronics has developed chipless, metal-free, paper RFID tags providing businesses with more sustainable and affordable inventory solutions, to help track paper-based, single-use items for a more circular economy.
Tata Varsity Pitch 2023: One Year On
While the judges deliberated, Sarah Bailey, founder of The Even Project, spoke to the audience and Finalists about her journey since winning the competition last year.
Tata Varsity Pitch 2024 Winner
After tough deliberation, the Tata Varsity Pitch Competition 2024 Winner was announced. The judges proudly announced Pulpatronics as this year’s winner. Congratulations!
What a fantastic conclusion to this year’s Tata Varsity Pitch Competition. We would like to thank everyone involved and wish all our entrepreneurs all the best with their ventures. We look forward to what 2025 has in store!
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