Student entrepreneurs awarded
The winner of the 2012 Venture Further competition was revealed on Friday, 18th May at an awards ceremony at the Manchester Museum. Out of six finalists, Kaffeination Ltd.emerged victorious with their energy food product in the annual business enterprise competition hosted by Manchester Enterprise Centre (MEC).
Kaffeination Ltd., UMIC's newest virtual tenant aim to ‘revolutionise the way people energise their lives’ with their innovative food product. The business is led by four MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship students from Manchester Business School - Matthias Schmid, Shiraz Anwar, David K Reetz and David Haron.
Matthias from Kaffeination Ltd. commented: “By entering Venture Further we sat together, worked hard, learned a lot through asking questions to experienced entrepreneurs and came up with ideas and plans we had never thought of before. It also helped us to really define the product and its use.
“Winning first prize increases our momentum, adds immense credibility to our business idea and we are very much looking forward to launching our game changing product in autumn this year.”
Other entries included Love Meat - an online butcher, Beach Bacchanal - a company specialising in plus size swimwear, Dukaan - a mobile app for fashion lovers, Bambi Bakery - a handmade celebration cakes business, and The Social Action and Research Foundation - a social enterprise aiming to empower local communities to tackle poverty.
Second place went to PhD Finance student Imtiaz Ul Haq with Dukaan, and third place to MEnt Fashion and Textiles student Alexandra Gibson with Beach Bacchanal. A special judges’ commendation award went to BSc Geography student Olivia Boston-Smith for Bambi Bakery.
Imtiaz commented: “Being a finalist in Venture Further for two consecutive years has made me confident of my entrepreneurial skills. It has brought me one step closer to realising my dream of starting my own company.”
The competition is open to students from across the University and is designed to encourage students to become more enterprising. This year’s competition finalists came from the Schools of Materials, Social Sciences, Environment and Development and Manchester Business School.
Venture Further organiser, Dr Martin Henery added: “Venture Further gives students the opportunity to put forward their business ideas and is a fun and exciting way of learning with support from the MEC team here at Manchester Business School.
“By entering, students develop enterprise skills such as imagination, creativity, effective problem solving and vision which give a boost to their career prospects upon graduation. A number of past entrants have gone on to lead their own successful businesses.”