Kent Business School is delighted to announce the winner of our 2021 Business Start Up Journey Awards \u2013 Mercy Adeniji with VeGate, a vegan food delivery service.<\/p>\n
Economics student Mercy<\/a> developed her business idea after noticing a gap in the market for sourcing deliverable ethical and vegan food products in one place.<\/p>\n On Wednesday March 31, she and seven other business hopefuls faced a panel of experts including Daniel Rubin, founder and CEO of the global footwear brand Dune London<\/a> and University of Kent alumnus Laura Bounds MBE, owner of award winning Kent Crisps<\/a> to win first prize in the Dragons Den style pitching competition. Mercy was the recipient of \u00a31,000 investment into her business.<\/p>\n Mercy says:<\/p>\n \u201cFor as long as I can remember I have aspired to launch my own business, I’ve wanted to go on The Apprentice and be an entrepreneur. I want to do it for the right reasons – for the environment and greater good.<\/p>\n It feels so crazy to have won the competition. Studying from home, during a pandemic it was hard to stay motivated but VeGate – a vegan delivery service platform – has been my driving force.<\/p>\n The Business Start Up Journey enabled me to build a brand from idea to product, the support you receive is just amazing. Simply being part of the process was enough for me, but winning it has blown my mind! It is a huge boost of confidence. I am going to use the money to market my business after which I hope to eventually create a fully functioning app.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The BSUJ<\/a> is a co-curricular programme of interactive practical workshops offered by Kent Business School<\/a>. It is open to students from any School or Faculty at the University of Kent, at any level of study from Stage 1 undergraduate to final year, postgraduate and PhD. The Journey, which is part of the University\u2019s Study Plus programme,<\/a> takes students through the process of starting a business \u2013 from finding an idea, testing it, establishing finances and start-up costs, to pitching to investors.<\/p>\n The runners up were the UniConnect Team of students with a platform that connects students, alumni and staff from the same university and Viktoria Bogos with Fliplight, a light ring attachment for smartphone cameras. They received \u00a3500 in investment each.<\/p>\n