Five students from the University of Westminster have made the semi-finals of the Mayor’s Entrepreneur Competition for 2021, a competition which asks London-based students to come up with viable, sustainable business ideas.
The programme has a mission to create growth that makes London cleaner, greener and prepared for the future through London’s students, and ensure that these students view entrepreneurship as a viable career path and get the skills they need to succeed. It asks London’s students to find solutions to improve their city through their own creative ideas, and is funded through support from the Citi Foundation.
Five students from the University of Westminster submitted their ideas to an expert panel of judges, who shortlisted the 35 best ideas from each of the four awards. The semi-finalists will attend a bootcamp-style training session to receive additional training and tips on pitching, and will then create a short video pitch which will be sent to the expert judging panel who will select the top six ideas for each award to reach the finals in June.
In the Tech Award category, business ideas in the semi-finals by Westminster students include Jalat Logistics by Davide Galelli who is studying Digital Business, CodingGenius by Christopher Rees from the Software Engineering BEng Honours course and Krassimo by Eduard Gheorghe from the Business Management (Entrepreneurship) BA Honours course. ReVerse by Prerna Shinde from the Interactive Media Practice MA course has been shortlisted for the Environment Award, and Marco Gafa relli Ljdm – The Living Wall - #IExist by Marco Gafa from the Photography BA Honours course has been shortlisted for the Creative Industries Award.
Prerna Shinde’s business idea ReVerse is an innovative application which looks to solve the problem of poor waste management and improve London’s recycling rate to overall reduce the city’s carbon emissions. The project hopes to make recycling fun, easy and rewardable for consumers, while influencing sustainable consumption and manufacturing and simplifying the overall product cycle.
Talking about her business idea, Prerna said: “When I first arrived in London for my Masters, I realized there are recycling facilities everywhere, but most people don’t end up recycling, which pushed me to come up with a prototype that provides a simple solution, also provides incentives and benefits consumers, brands, the government, and mainly for our planet’s and our future.”
Savraj Matharu, Course Leader for the Interactive Media Practice MA, said: “It is great to see our students achieving success during a testing time. We remain focused and committed to assisting our students in the world of work and industry 4.0. Opportunities like the Mayor’s Entrepreneur Competition are fantastic for driving innovation through employer focused skills. Our London location, student ambition and robust curriculum ensures our students succeed and progress further. Westminster has a truly unique and enriched history of innovation through Quintin Hogg, and we aim to progress this legacy through several enablers. Westminster continues to be a great place to learn, study and intellectually grow for our students.”
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