This past Thursday saw another milestone for the 2023 Tata Varsity Pitch Competition. On October 12th, NACUE hosted the all exciting Semi-Finals!
Thirty semi-finalists, each a student or recent graduate entrepreneur, pitched-off for a place to represent their competition category in the Grand Final. This would be no small feat — as not only would this make them a 2023 Finalist, but also give them a 1 in 7 chance of winning the £15,000 prize and coveted national title for their business.
Participants pitched across the six designated categories, each given just two minutes to convince the judging panel that they should be given a spot in the Grand Final. Read more about each of our semi-finalists below and see who were selected as Finalists.
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.
Phare Labs : Phare Labs is a fire alarm that uses a patent-pending combination of chemical and spectral sensors together with AI to increase fire detection sensitivity by over 50% and reduce false alarms by 98%.
Ambessa Play : Ambessa Play is transforming education by intertwining purpose with play. With a co-designed model, every kit sold gifts one to an out-of-school refugee child.
Resting Reef : Resting Reef is a sustainable memorial that allows people to transform their ashes into beautiful memorial reef structures that regenerate marine life.
Studio ZRX : Studio ZRX is a circular design practice that seeks to balance experimental playfulness and timeless functionality, whilst focusing on the nuances of materiality. They are currently working on Pebble — a reimagined hairdryer concept.
Smarter Flow : Smarter Flow helps you start, converse, and book more appointments on autopilot for your business.
The category was judged by representatives from Tata Consumer: Tuuli Turunen and Dan Adams. After a tough deliberation, they named PhareLabs as the category winner. Congratulations to PhareLabs!
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.
Tap’N’Tour : Tap’N’Tour is a transformative digital platform revolutionising the way travellers experience destinations. We empower guides with the technology to curate bespoke tours, granting travellers the freedom to explore at their own pace, yet be enriched with local insights.
CloSh : CloSh is more clothes, less cost. Connect with your friends’ wardrobes, discover styles to borrow, track everything you’ve lent, and save money and the planet.
Fawns Interactive : Fawns Interactive is on a mission to disrupt the music industry with their upcoming mobile game Boogie Runner, a ground-breaking music platform designed to empower new and emerging artists.
Reality Uni : Reality Uni is an ed-tech platform for the ‘Metaverse’ or spatial computing era, offering educational tools for those keen to advance in spatial computing software development.
GloGenesis : GloGenesis is on a mission to rescue textile waste destined for landfills or incineration by processing discarded fabric and offering it to brands and institutions for upcycling, curbing the need for new fabric production.
The category was judged by representatives from Tata Consultancy Services: Kripa Subramanian, Lakshman B, and Sai Vishnubhotla. Tap’N’Tour was chosen as their winner — congratulations!
Health & Wellbeing with Tata Communications
The Health & Wellbeing category with Tata Communications rounded off the morning session with more brilliant pitches.
Kitt Medical : KittMedical is a defibrillator for allergies; an multi-award winning Anaphylaxis Kitt service that provides schools with a regulated supply of emergency adrenaline pens, unlimited access to CPD accredited online training courses, and more.
Psyrin : Psyrin is building a new standard of clinical assessment for the 145 million individuals who suffer from serious mental illness through a novel AI algorithms that analyses patient speech to enable early diagnosis.
Pharmovo : Pharmovo is the B2B2C solution that is using AI to undercut the global pharmaceutical market. Through forecasting the exact quantities of medicines demanded in specific regions and matching this to the lowest-priced stock on the shelves of our pharmaceutical clients.
Neubond : Neubond has developed a ground-breaking rehabilitation device to address the critical need for home rehabilitation following a stroke.
ReKaul : ReKaul is revolutionising Alzheimer’s care by combining innovation and compassion into a personalised wearable, which offers a non-invasive treatment.
This category was judged by Milind Tapaswi, Zuhamy Villasenor, and Annu Alexander. Congrats to Kitt Medical, who were named the winners of this category.
Tata Early-Stage
The afternoon kicked off with the Tata Early-Stage category, continuing the high standards we’d seen in the morning.
Served : Served is on a mission to transform dining out for those living with allergies through a user-app that creates an allergy ID for customers.
Diligence MSc : Diligence MSc helps VCs and mid-sized PE firms and other investors undertake their management due diligence.
NuZones : NuZones is a sports and wellbeing app that helps user’s mental health by encouraging more people into sports and simplifying an activity’s planning and messaging phases.
Defensive Thinking : Pulse, by Defensive Thinking, is a disruptive state-of-the-art Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance platform tailored for military and crisis management operations.
rebox.eco : Rebox.eco makes new boxes from old boxes helping brands send ecommerce deliveries more sustainably by capturing value in used materials and reducing waste.
The category was judged by representatives from Tata: Kamal Desai (Tata Limited), Clare Meek (TSUK / TBEM), and Tony Ashburner (TMETC). After thorough deliberation, they chose Defensive Thinking, 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.
Persium : Persium has created the world’s most powerful digital twin platform for tackling air pollution. Through creating 3D simulations of cities, they can visualise & analyse pollution and quantify the effectiveness of policies in real-time.
Paige Braille : Currently, information produced by braille writers cannot be easily stored and shared or understood by people who cannot read braille. Paige Braille can retrofit to braille writers, letting you share the print translation of your embossed braille.
The Even Project : The Even Project are launching the first One-size-fits-all Period Underwear for low income and displaced menstruators.
Intotum : Intotum is an adaptive clothing range for people with disabilities, providing inclusive access to fashion.
Bravely Cultured : BravelyCultured harnesses the power of the ocean to bravely cultivate the future of sustainable protein production.
The category was judged by: Kamal Desai (Tata Limited), Clare Meek (TSUK / TBEM), Tony Ashburner (TMETC). After considerable deliberation, The Even Project was announced as this category’s winner!
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.
Enturi Solutions : Enturi Solutions is a pioneering start-up developing game-changing distributed renewable energy systems for coastal regions.
Myscan : Myscan is developing an inexpensive and portable lateral flow test that aids in the early detection of cancer.
Senseiforall : Sensei is an innovative startup that specialises in designing tactile wayfinding surfaces, with each pattern representing a specific room in an interior space.
Visoculi : Visoculi is a maker of high quality luxury sports eyewear.
Elderado : Elderado uses virtual reality, narrative psychology, and game design principles, in VR workshops, to help businesses better understand racism and discrimination.
The category was judged by Luke Birch, Stuart Roberts and Dave White. While the pitches were all round outstanding, Enturi Solutions, 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 during Global Entrepreneurship Week in November. Ticket registration opens soon on our website: https://bit.ly/TVP2023
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. With grateful thanks to our judges and category sponsors Tata, Tata Communications, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Consumer and Jaguar Land Rover.
