King's College Entrepreneurship Prize

The King’s College Entrepreneurship Prize encourages the development of entrepreneurial ideas and concepts, where creativity and knowhow can be converted into sustainable commercial and social benefit. The competition was established in 2014 and past prizewinners have gone on to develop innovative businesses in healthcare, engineering, robotics, communications and consumer products. It is open to all King's members and is independent of the King's Entrepreneurship Lab.

After a long-listing and short-listing process, finalists compete for a first prize of £20,000, with the judges also able to make discretionary awards. The panel of judges is divided between members of the College fellowship and King’s alumni with expertise in business development and venture capital. 

In keeping with the College’s educational mission, all candidates, regardless of whether they are prizewinners, are offered feedback on request and mentorship in raising start-up funds and bringing their concepts to market. The Competition is open to all students, Fellows, Associates and alumni of King’s, irrespective of age.

How to Enter

Please ensure that you have read the competition guidelines before submitting your entry to the King’s Entrepreneurship Prize. Your one-page Business Idea, plus the Entry Cover Sheet (see below), should be sent by email to Amy Ingle in the King's College Development Office. The subject of your email should be the name of your entrepreneurial idea followed by the first name and surname of your Team Lead.

The deadline for the competition entries is Monday 23 January 2023. Good luck in the competition!

   King's Entrepreneurship Prize - Guidelines
Statement of Ethics
Cover Sheet for Entries

Timeline

Deadline Activity
November 2022 Entrepreneurship Prize opens for Business Idea submissions
23 January 2023 Deadline for one-page Business Idea submissions
28 February 2023 Entrants notified whether or not their Business Idea has made the next stage
20 March 2023 Deadline for submission of supplementary information (4 pages)
7 April 2023 Entrants notified whether or not their Business Idea is through to the Lyons Den
2 June 2023 Lyons Den presentation times confirmed with entrants
5 June 2023 Business Plan paperwork, presentation slides, and all other presentation material to be submitted for pre-presentation administration
22 June 2023 The Lyons Den: presentation of Business Plans to the Entrepreneurship Panel
30 June 2023 Lyons Den finalists notified whether or not they are prize-winners
31 July 2023 Winners to send in an impact statement
11 December 2023 Winners to send through a 6-month progress update statement
1 June 2024 Winners to send through a 12-month progress update statement (further update statements due after 18 months and 24 months)

 

Judging Panel

  • Michael Proctor
    (KC 2013, Applied Mathematics)
    Michael Proctor
  • Jonathan Adams
    (KC 1986, Economics)
  • Gemma Chandratillake
    (KC 1997, Natural Sciences)
    Gemma Chandratillake
  • Megan Donaldson
    (KC 2015)
  • Hermann Hauser
    (KC 1973, Physics)
  • Lorraine Headen
    (KC 2016)
    Lorraine Headen
  • Stuart Lyons CBE
    (KC 1962, Classics)
    Stuart Lyons
  • Malcolm McKenzie
    (KC 1977, Engineering)
    Malcolm McKenzie
  • Gerard Mizrahi
    (KC 1970, Economics)
  • Kamiar Mohaddes
    (KC 2019, Economics)
    Kamiar Mohaddes
  • Adrian Suggett
    (KC 1985, Electronic and Information Sciences)
  • Shailendra Vyakarnam
    (PhD Cranfield, ASCR at King's)

Past Winners

The Entrepreneurship Prize launched in 2014 and has helped launch innovative new companies such as Nemesis and PoliValve in the health sector, Asan and ViraHealth in women’s wellbeing, Echion Technologies in battery design, RoboK in robotics, and WaterScope in water purification. For more information about the history of the competition, please see all the previous winners.

2017 winners RoboK
2019 winners Asan
2020 winners Vira Health
2022 winners Correcto

Winners of the Entrepreneurship Prize

The King's Entrepreneurship Prize began in 2014 and has funded a number of ventures - see more here!
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Entrepreneurship at King's

Entrepreneurship at King's has a long history, and is now boosted by the King's Entrepreneurship Prize and the activities of the Entrepreneurship Lab.
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Entrepreneurship Events

Upcoming and past entrepreneurship events can be seen here.  
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Making a Gift

We welcome donations of all sizes to important causes such as our access programme, graduate scholarships or our renowned Chapel and Choir.
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KEP 2023: Entry Cover Sheet
Entrepreneurship Competition Guidelines
Statement of Ethics

Entrepreneurship News

New Entrepreneur-in-Residence arrives at King's

30 Nov 2022

Co-Founder of Owlstone, Billy Boyle, will be available to students interested in creating their own start-ups

Read more
philmynott_2567_catherinebostock_crop

Inaugural Entrepreneur-in-Residence MPhil student arrives at King’s

20 Oct 2022

Alongside her studies in Criminology, Catherine Bostock will be developing a social enterprise to help young people cope with trauma.

Read more
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New gift to transform scope of King's Entrepreneurship Lab

29 Sep 2022

A gift from David Sainsbury and the Gatsby Foundation will help expand the E-Lab's activities for the next ten years.

Read more

Follow Us

 
A paper co-written by King’s PhD student Ash Simkins highlights that at least 80% of the world’s most important sites for biodiversity on land currently contain human developments. 👇 Read more on the College website, under 'A Greener King's' @cambridgeuniversity @birdlife.international @wwf @rspb_love_nature
 
On #worldwaterday we want to celebrate the work of all who, like King's Entrepreneurship Prize 2019 joint winner @waterscope, are working to overcome global water inequality. In this image, WaterScope co-founder Alexander Patto (KC 2012) is seen testing water quality at Nyarugusu refugee camp, Tanzania, back in 2020.
 
With Lent Term now over and College feeling rather quiet, we are looking forward to sunnier days when we can catch up outdoors and enjoy #springincambridge Sunny 📷 taken by Alice last year.
 
Only one week to go... The Gemini Boat Race is NEXT SUNDAY, 26 MARCH! King's undergraduate Luca Ferraro has been selected once more to represent Cambridge in the Boat Race, while King's PhD student Janeska de Jonge will be part of the Blondie crew. 🙌💜💜 Watch live on @bbcone @bbcsport from 15:30 BST, worldwide on YouTube, or in person from the Fan Parks in Fulham & Hammersmith. #TheBoatRace #TheGeminiBoatRace
 
End of Lent Term and also end of another very busy week for conservators Rebekka Katajisto and Grace An, who have been treating paintings from King's art collection that are usually displayed in College offices, the Hall, and Fellow and student rooms. Rebekka and Grace, both in their 2nd year of the Conservation of Easel Paintings course, are working under the supervision of Victoria Sutcliffe from the Hamilton Kerr Institute. Victoria says "It is a joy to work at King's on such an important collection of Bloomsbury Group and other artists, and to support our students to learn by working on such a wide variety of paintings and learning new techniques." Read more about their work on the College website, under 'News' (link in bio). @stedmundscam @wolfsoncollegecam @fitzmuseum_uk
 
During Michaelmas Term, King’s College Library collaborated with @cambridgeuniversitylibrary to digitise its copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio, ahead of the 400th anniversary of the book’s first publication in 1623. Now King's very own copy of Shakespeare's First Folio can be consulted online. 👉Swipe to see Amélie Deblauwe from the UL’s Digital Content Unit photographing the folio, and find out more on the College website, under 'News' (link in bio). #shakespearefirstfolio
 
With the sun finally out (or nearly) and planting season around the corner, we wanted to share some pics of the student allotments back in 2020, when the few students in residence managed to grow from maize and potatoes to courgettes, beans, squashes and even salsify! No pressure, but we know Head Gardener Steve has recently been organising sowing sessions for the King's Allotment Society so we expect to see the student allotments looking like this again very soon... 😉
 
Thank you, @acambridgediary, for capturing this great moment for @kingscollegeboatclub and the W1 crew, who managed to bump on each day of racing! That willow looks great in your hair. 😉 Congratulations to all three crews: you certainly had a tough time out there in the rain and snow. #yeahkings💜 #lentbumps #womenatkings
 
#FlashbackFriday to sunnier Lent Bumps (2020 as captured by @acambridgediary) where sunglasses and visors were bang on trend. This year the wind, rain and snow have been an added challenge for our three @kingscollegeboatclub crews. Go King's! 💜💜💜 #lentbumps
 
Congratulations to King's Fellows Fraz Mir and Thomas Roulet (pictured here at @cambridgejudge) on being awarded two of the thirteen 2023 Pilkington Prizes for excellence in teaching. 👏 The Prizes are awarded annually by the Vice-Chancellor to members of staff in recognition of their contributions to the teaching programme of a Department, Faculty or the University as a whole. Read more about current and past winners of this very special award on the College website, under 'News'.
 
Join us this evening for a special service in Chapel to celebrate International Women’s Day. 👭 King’s Voices will be singing music written by female composers, spanning a wide range of choral traditions from the 12th to the 21st century. Ahead of the service, King's Chaplain Mary Kells said: "I’m delighted that we will be celebrating International Women’s Day in King’s Chapel, with a sequence of music and readings, all of which honour and acknowledge the experience, vitality and creativity of women, from antiquity to the present day." #internationalwomensday #IWD #universityofcambridge #cambridgeuniversity #musicatcambridge
 
Bird's-eye view of yesterday's TTP Cambridge Half Marathon runners (12,000 people signed up this year!) going around the sleepy wildflower meadow towards the bridge and the Backs. 🦅

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