The semi-finals of the Tata Varsity Pitch Competition 2022, powered by NACUE, took place on Thursday October 13th, 2022, hosted in collaboration with NatWest Enterprise. Thirty semi-finalists pitched-off for six places in the Grand Final, a chance to win £15,000 equity-free funding and a coveted national title.
Participants pitched across six designated categories, each given just two minutes to convince the judging panel that they should represent their category in the Grand Final. At the end of each category a virtual networking event was run by our semi-finals host NatWest Enterprise.Read more about our semi-finalsts great ideas and who were selected as Finalists in the recap of the event below!
Genuine Innovation with Tata Consumer
The first category of the day was the highly anticipated Genuine Innovation Category with Tata Consumer, which got the day off to a great start.
Pluteau
Pluteau is a blockchain-powered tokenization and trading platform through which musicians can sell the ownership rights to their music and associated future royalty revenue.
BoxxDocks
Through the design of smart, collapsible logistics boxes, BoxxDocks allows clients to economically package, increasing operational efficiency, reducing fuel consumption and slashing the shipment price of air.
Re-sept Ltd
Re-sept is a modern, performance-driven haircare brand inspired by ancient principles to address the root of common hair concerns at the scalp.
Swoopd
Swoopd is an online second-hand marketplace that matches people up by height, size, style, and brand preferences, creating niche and friendly communities in which users can swap their clothes with alike people.
Stash-Up
Stash-Up is a marketplace that makes school uniforms affordable for parents and improves the sustainability of purchasing those uniforms.
The category was judged by representatives from Tata Consumer: David Akinson, Lee Birchall and Sarah King. After a tough deliberation, they named BoxxDocks as the category winner. Congratulations to BoxxDocks!
Creative & Design with Tata Consultancy Services
The Creative & Design category with Tata Consultancy Services was up next, as pitchers continued to impress the audience and judges.
ARC-TEC
ARC-TEC is a new construction toy for imagination and learning.
REALITY FOOTWEAR
Reality Footwear creates 3D printed monomaterial footwear automatically generated from a 3D foot scan providing optimal fit and reducing CO2 emissions.
Imminent Meta Limited
Imminent Meta Limited is an Augmented Reality streetwear fashion brand selling enhanced clothing through the use of AR.
X-ZIBIT
X-ZIBIT is a platform that enables students and alumni from multi-disciplinary fashion courses to upload and create portfolios, network and collaborate with other creative students worldwide.
Yamama
Yamama is an ethical, fair, sustainable fashion brand aiming to empower refugee women in the UK through collaborative production efforts to create beautiful handmade clothing.
The category was judged by representatives from Tata Consultancy Services: Roger Oates, G Subramanian, Sai Vishnubhotla. REALITY FOOTWEAR was chosen as their winner — congratulations!
Health & Wellbeing with Tata Communications
The Health & Wellbeing category with Tata Communications rounded off the morning with more brilliant pitches.
Tycho MedLink
Tycho MedLink provides an augmented reality mobile application to support patient’s rehabilitation and improve care quality.
Easy Wheels
Easy Wheels is a tech hardware company that makes power assist portable devices which can be attached to self propelled mechanical wheelchairs and then can be controlled through wireless remote.
Drill Surgeries Ltd.
Drill Surgeries develops medical devices powered through AI and tracking algorithms to eliminate the guesswork in surgeries.
Well-being First
Well-being First is a web-based application that sets up comprehensive, feature-rich well-being monitoring in primary schools in under 5-minutes.
ABD nanotech
ABD Nanotech has developed a new anti-viral fabric designed to eliminate the risk of infection transmission for both doctors and patients
This category was judged by Adam Barribal, Rashi Bedia, Ramdev K. Congrats to Drill Surgeries, who were named the winners of this category. When asked how they felt about the day, Moises Barbera Ramos, Founder of Drill Surgeries, had this to say:
I was lucky enough to take part on last year’s Tata Varsity Pitch and it was an amazing experience, very talented entrepreneurs and such a diverse pool of experiences that made 2021 cohort one to keep in touch with.
This year, Tata #VP2022 continues to raise the bar, I have been fortunate enough to win the semi-finals, where I encountered many brilliant entrepreneurs that deserved their own spot on the finals, we shared our LinkedIn pages and connected so, even though our paths do not continue hand-by-hand in this cohort 2022, we will continue to support each other as we build our startups further.
At the end of the day, Tata #VP2022 is always a filter for good ideas and entrepreneurs so, making it to the semi-finals is already an accomplishment and a valuable network to keep around!
Tata Early-Stage
The afternoon kicked off with the Tata Early-Stage category, continuing the high standards we’d seen in the morning.
Seaweed Culture
Seaweed Culture is developing a novel land based cultivation system to grow a seaweed species not native to the UK that when incorporated into the diet of ruminant livestock can reduce methane emissions significantly.
Fibe
Fibe extracts textile fibres from potato harvest waste. This solution financially supports food farming, whilst cutting environmental impact without compromising garment quality or cost.
FlexSea
FlexSea develops novel biomaterials to replace single-use plastics in various verticals., through materials derived from naturally occurring seaweed biopolymers from widely cultivated red seaweed strains.
Kreios Space S.L.
Kreios Space is developing an electric propulsion system for satellites, allowing satellites to orbit closer to Earth without fuel usage.
Urban Panel
Urban Panel seeks address the UK’s residential construction needs by being the building component of choice for architects and engineers.
The category was judged by representatives from Tata: Kamal Desai (Tata Limited), Clare Meek (TSUK / TBEM), Tony Ashburner (TMETC). After thorough deliberation, they chose Fibe, as their winner!
Tata Social Impact
The penultimate category of the competition was Tata Social Impact, showcasing businesses with a passion to make a difference.
Team Repair
Team Repair is the first sustainable subscription service that teaches children science, technology, and the life skill of repair.
Scrapp Recycling
Scrapp is a green-tech start-up on a mission to make recycling simple, with their free app that aims to remove barriers for anyone to make informed disposal decisions.
Himayat
Himayat is a digital benefits and human resource management platform supporting female domestic workers and their employers in India.
Dotplot
Dotplot facilitates the early detection of breast cancer through an all-in-one app covering self-check dates, personalised torso mapping, self-check guides, and breast-tissue reports to help identify abnormalities.
Vactraca Institute
Vactraca is a fashionable necklace that doubles as a vaccination tracker to help mothers in developing countries keep track of their children’s vaccination information
The category was judged by: Kamal Desai (Tata Limited), Clare Meek (TSUK / TBEM), Tony Ashburner (TMETC). After considerable deliberation, Himayat, was announced as this category’s winner! When asked about their experience of the day, they replied:
“We are so grateful that NACUE Tata Varsity Pitch gave us the platform to raise the extremely challenging issue of informal labor rights. The semi-finals allowed us to reflect on our venture and learn from our peers to better position ourselves for success. As we prepare to represent the Social Impact Category in the finals, we are looking forward to working closely with the incredible staff and industry professionals at both NACUE and Tata and are excited to share our venture with the world!”
Digital & Technical with Jaguar Land Rover
Last but not least, the semi-finals were concluded on a high note with the Jaguar Land Rover Digital & Technical category.
LIROSEN LIMITED
LIROSEN is a wireless communications company developing a real-time dynamic Ultra-High-Definition map for connected vehicles, allowing interaction with vulnerable road users via shared location data in a virtual reality navigation game.
Beautiful Voice
Beautiful Voice is an integrated digital health platform that delivers modern home rehabilitation with quantitative speech analysis while building a marketable database.
CircuLite
AC Biode upcycles coal or biomass ash into a new material called CircuLite. CircuLite can be used in carbon capture, self-cooling concrete, soil improvement, water and air purification, face masks and cleaning up oil spills.
Route Konnect Limited
Route Konnect provides anonymised vehicle and people movement insights captured across multiple cameras, the first computer vision company to develop an anonymised alternative to facial recognition.
NXT LVL
NXT LVL is a B2B fit-tech venture that offers avatar visualisation for workouts and employs gamification techniques to prolong engagement.
The category was judged by Frederic Sicard, Damian Ward and Paul Widdowson. While the pitches were all round outstanding, Route Konnect, was announced as this category’s Finalist.
Well done to all semi-finalists and huge congratulations to the finalists! The competition was tough this year with very high standard pitches and ideas, so you all should be proud of your achievements.
Please join us at the Grand Final of this year’s Tata Varsity Pitch Competition, to be held at the Six Park Place, home of the Royal Over-Seas League — Princess Alexandra Hall (just five minutes’ walk from Green Park Tube Station) on Wednesday 16th November 2022 from 1:00pm to 5pm.
You will meet some of the fantastic talent that abounds in our network and we are sure you too will enjoy seeing who will be crowned this year’s winner, along with our long-term partner and headline sponsor Tata. Do make a date in your diary and reserve your place to join us by using the following link here.
With grateful thanks to our judges and category sponsors Tata, Tata Communications, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Consumer and Jaguar Land Rover.
