Students and recent graduates can now apply for grants to help start or develop their business through funding from ASPIRE and Santander Universities.
Applications are now open with grants of up to £1,500 available for students or graduates with businesses which are nearly at the point of trading or which have been trading for less than a year.
Money can be used for a wide range of activity to develop the business from buying social media posts to travel to industry events or training.
Previous grant winners include:
Plantix
Plantix is an innovative automatic plant watering device created by Computer Science student Lorenzo Chinole and Artificial Intelligence student Simona Paraskevopoulou, It began in a university module as a coursework project- and after realising the potential of the idea, Simona and Lorenzo decided to turn it into a business. Their Santander Enterprise Grant supported development of software, purchasing hardware and marketing activities.
MGX
MGX is a denim customisation service and brand, created by Marketing student Giovanni Morgan dedicated to realising the ideas and designs of its customers providing customers with bespoke, one-of-one products.
Giovanni’s Santander Enterprise Grand helped him to collaborate and create new designs, purchased new equipment and raw materials and improved his website including a new interface for order processes.
Do You Customs
Computing graduate, Tomiwa Sosanya, started Do You Customs in January customising his first pair of shoes. After making a second pair word got out and he made his first sale. The
Santander Enterprise Grand helped to create promotions for a presence at a market including social media ads and look books. It also helped to pay for a photo and video shoot to showcase new products and skills.
Nu Elefa
Nu Elefa is a socially driven natural haircare brand that provides women and men high-quality haircare products founded by Accounting and Finance student Nadia Simpson.
Her Santander grant was used to fund a rebrand with the creation of new brand assets, new logo social media posts, packaging design, flyer design and business card design as well as a brand tool kit.
Wistom
Architecture & The Sustainable Environment student, Anne Ainley founded Wistom, an architectural sustainability consultancy providing sustainable strategy to councils, planners, architects, property developers and engineers. Santander Enterprise Grand helped Anne to develop her website, have business cards printed, buy specialist software and pay for insurance.
These grants are part of the ASPIRE’s work supporting students and graduates to start their own businesses and develop career-enhancing entrepreneurial skills.The flagship Business Start-Up Journey programme is a series of fun, practical and interactive workshops which take students through the process of starting a business from finding an idea to pitching for investment.Students are also able to get one-to-one support to develop their business ideas from ASPIRE’s Entrepreneurs in Residence, experienced business people with expertise ranging from finding innovation, to using technology, pitching and investment.
To find out more or apply for a grant, email ASPIRE@kent.ac.uk