Two start-ups supported by the University of Westminster have been selected for the Santander X UK Awards 2022 programme. ARC-TEC will be competing in the Launch category for new businesses, and Legal Utopia will represent the University in the Accelerate category for growing businesses.
Legal Utopia was founded in 2017, aiming to help people 24/7 with their legal issues through intelligent technology. The AI system has been built into a mobile app that can assist with understanding legal issues and connecting to a local lawyer. The company has more than 24,000 users and over 140,000 cases analysed. Legal Utopia have delivered industry research in collaboration with leading British institutions, including the University of Westminster.
ARC-TEC was established by student Charlotte Donivar from the Architecture MA course at the University of Westminster. The company plans to launch before the end of the year and will be producing new and unique construction toys with triangular blocks for children. Charlotte came up with the idea while studying about Biomimicry, design inspired by nature, and how nature's preferred building blocks often are triangular shapes. She hopes to inspire children to build and create with nature in mind, while promoting cognitive thinking and developing spatial reasoning. The toys are also manufactured in eco-friendly materials in the UK.
Charlotte took part in the Westminster Entrepreneurship Pioneer Programme, designed to upskill future business leaders, develop enterprise skills, grow networks, build confidence and ability to solve real-world problems during and after their studies. This programme led Charlotte to win Westminster’s Big Idea Competition, and to take part in Santander X .
Talking about the programme, Charlotte said: “It's very exciting to have been selected to be part of the prestigious Santander X programme. They have selected a cohort of the most promising start-ups from the whole of the UK, and I'm so happy to be part of this!”
Santander's annual Entrepreneurship Awards is one of the UK's largest student and graduate business pitching competitions. The start-ups joined an intensive six-week training programme throughout October and November, led by small business support platform Enterprise Nation as well Santander’s own experts. The training will cover the fundamentals of business and ways of scaling up to established companies.
After the training, the participants will be invited to a day-long pitching event to present their ideas in live quarter-final and semi-final sessions. The final 12 businesses, six in each category, will get the chance to pitch to a high-profile judging panel at the live national final in London at the end of November. The top prize for the Launch and Accelerate categories is £15,000 and £20,000 respectively, while all businesses shortlisted for the Launch category will also receive a £1,000 grant after completing the training programme.
“It has been amazing to be part of Santander’s programme, it is very professional and led by some brilliant and inspirational people. We have been able to take part in enriching workshops and seminars and will finally meet in person for a grand summit in Birmingham next week and I cannot wait! Everyone has different ideas and it's been great to get to know fellow entrepreneurs and to be in a room full of talent, ambition and creativity,” said Charlotte.
Three winning businesses will be chosen in each category and will be automatically selected as part of the Santander X Global Awards to compete against university start-ups from across Europe and Latin America.
“Given the important role small businesses play in the UK economy, supporting young entrepreneurial talent is a key priority for Santander. We are delighted to support the high potential, early-stage start-ups coming out of universities across the UK, such as the University of Westminster. I wish Legal Utopia and ARC-TEC the very best of luck ahead of the pitching at the end of the month,” Said Matt Hutnell, Director of Santander Universities UK.
“We are incredibly proud of our longstanding relationship with Santander. Thank you to Remy and the team for providing our students with enriching opportunities to take the next step in their entrepreneurial journey,” said Daniella Rodriguez, Development Officer at the University of Westminster.
Learn more about Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at the University of Westminster.
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