Last night we celebrated our brilliant New Enterprise (NEC) GROWTH stage finalists. We saw a highlight of some of the amazing businesses that we have supported this year in Basecamp Enterprise.
Back row (left to right): Kieren Sharma and Riku Green (Artificially Ever After), Abanoub Ghobrial (Fidelis AI), Mukund Srinivasa Raghavan (EarTide), Farjana Akter and Ankit Karmakar (Animalize.io). Front row (left to right): Daniel Virin (Cribster), Arik Shukhman and Holly Brown (pebbl), Sam Rapier (Exekias Games).
The NEC is the Careers Service’s flagship start-up competition. Run by the Basecamp Enterprise Team, students, graduates, and staff, with support from mentors and experts, transform their start-up ideas into business realities.
The final stage of the competition, the GROWTH stage, sees shortlisted participants pitch to a panel of experts for a chance to be awarded a share of the prizes, which include funding support, pro bono legal advice from VWV LLP, SETsquared memberships and other opportunities from our sponsors and supporters.
We are thrilled to announce our overall winner of this year’s GROWTH stage (drumroll please)… pebbl!
pebbl was co-founded by Arik Shukhman and Holly Brown. They have just launched their first product, Pebble One, an innovative, automatic cable management device.
pebbl won £8,000 funding, along with £2,000 pro-bono legal support from VWV LLP.
“I think that our one feeling is being overwhelmed with joy. This funding and support will provide us with the opportunity to expand right at a critical time in our development. We’re so grateful.” – Arik and Holly.
Meet the rest of our winners!
Cribster, an AI-powered student-exclusive platform helping students find flatmates they are compatible to live with, was founded by Daniel Virin and his brother Asher Virin. Cribster win £5,000 funding, along with £2,000 pro-bono legal support from VWV LLP.
Artificially Ever After are our recipients of the Engineers in Business £3,000 award. Founded by Riku Green and Kieren Sharma, Artificially Ever After is a digital brand aiming to educate and demystify artificial intelligence through podcasts, social media, and live events.
Exekias Games, founded by Sam Rapier and Fin Stanbridge, win £3,000 funding. Exekias Games are creating Classically-inspired educational boardgames. Their first game is Escape From Pompeii. You can support them here on Kickstarter.
This year we awarded two memberships to SETsquared Bristol, which is a tech start-up incubator in collaboration with the University of Bristol and Bristol Innovations.
- A 12-month membership was awarded to Fidelis AI, founded by Abanoub Ghobrial. Fidelis AI is a deep tech company developing a revolutionary technology for datasets gathering used in training and testing perception AI systems.
- A 6-month membership was awarded to EarTide, founded by Mukund Srinivasa Raghavan. EarTide is a novel earwax removal device, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
The People’s Choice Award is the chance for the public to vote for who they would like to see win £1,000. This year, after a total of over 2,000 public votes, we are pleased to announce that Animalize.io are our 2024-25 People’s Choice Award winners! Founded by Ankit Karmakar and Farjana Akter, Animalize.io is a veterinary practice management software.
This year, the NEC has supported a total of 55 businesses across the three stages of the programme.
From nootropic 0% drinks from Gabba Juice, and empowering home cooks to provide on-the-go meals with Tiffit, to encouraging conscious consumerism with GrnPay and creating an online nail art following with nailsbynoveena – the Basecamp Enterprise Team have supported a wide range of businesses.
Whether you need help solidifying your ideas into a reality, or help with creating a solid business plan, we are here to support your enterprise activities alongside your studies and for up to 3 years after graduation. Be sure to check out our website here, and find more information by searching ‘new enterprise competition’ on mycareer.