King's College Entrepreneurship Prize

King’s College has always been entrepreneurial, and our members have long pioneered advancements in their fields.

In 2014, the King’s College Entrepreneurship Prize competition was founded, to further support and publicly recognise these entrepreneurial endeavours. Its mission over the past 10 years has been to encourage the development of entrepreneurial ideas and concepts, where creativity and knowhow can be converted into sustainable commercial and social benefit.

We are delighted that over this period, the King’s College Entrepreneurship Prize competition has recognised 20 winning businessesawarded over £290,000 in funding, and our expert panel of judges have provided many more start-ups, from a wide range of industries, with valuable advice and mentorship.

After a long-listing and short-listing process, finalists compete at the Lyons Den final for a first prize of up to £20,000, with the judges also able to make discretionary awards. 

The panel of judges is comprised of members of the College Fellowship and King’s alumni with expertise in business development and venture capital. 

The Competition is open to all students, Fellows, College Research Associates and alumni of King’s, irrespective of age.

In keeping with the College’s educational mission, all candidates, regardless of whether they are prize-winners, are offered feedback on request and mentorship in raising start-up funds and bringing their concepts to market. 

In this exciting 10th competition year, we strongly encourage King’s Members to enter and put forward your initiatives for the consideration of the judges!

How to Enter

Please ensure that you have read the competition guidelines before submitting your entry to the King’s Entrepreneurship Prize. Your Business Idea, plus the Entry Form (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 22 January 2024. Good luck in the competition!

Timeline

Deadline Activity
November 2023 Entrepreneurship Prize opens for Business Idea submissions
22 January 2024 Deadline for Business Idea submissions (max 4 pages and 500 words)
01 March 2024 Entrants notified whether or not their Business Idea has made the next stage
18 March 2024 Deadline for submission of Short Pitch documents (max 8 pages and 800 words)
26 April 2024 Entrants notified whether or not they are through to the Lyons Den
03 June 2024 Seed Investment Pitch documents to be submitted. To include slide deck (max 12 pages and 1200 words), non-confidential business summary and team photo
11 June 2024

Lyons Den Seed Investment Pitch schedule confirmed with entrants

20 June 2024 The Lyons Den: Seed Investment Pitches to the Entrepreneurship Panel
28 June 2024 Lyons Den finalists notified whether or not they are prize-winners
31 July 2024 Winners to send in an impact statement
20 December 2024 Winners to send through a 6-month progress update statement
June 2025 Winners to send through a 12-month progress update statement (further update statements due after 18 months and 24 months)

 

Judging Panel

  • Gillian Tett
    KC 2023, Provost
    Gillian Tett
  • 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.

The King's Entrepreneurship Prize began in 2014 and has funded a number of ventures - see more here!
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.
Upcoming and past entrepreneurship events can be seen here.  
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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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