Imperial's WE Innovate Offers 30K Pound to Women-Led Startups

The WE Innovate Women-Led Startup Competition is providing a space for women entrepreneurs at Imperial College London to develop their business ideas into full-fledged and pitch-ready startups over a period of 6 months. The entrepreneurship program runs from January-June, and provides teams of women entrepreneurs with access to workshops, masterclasses delivered by experts, a personalised coaching session, mentoring, specialist advice and support to help them develop their start-up ideas and prepare for growth.

The program targets women-led teams aiming to develop an entrepreneurial idea and identify its potential for investment, market and future business development. The project is not just about a final pitch, but is built over three phases, enabling participants to build their ideas step-by-step by learning, coaching, feedback and providing practical start-up support.

Participants are provided with expert-led masterclasses on key aspects of startup development, and receive individual coaching based on their stage of development, idea, and specific problems. Mentoring also pairs founders with seasoned entrepreneurs and professionals who can provide practical advice and real-world experience around business building and running an early-stage business.

 Key Highlights

• WE Innovate offers a six-month program for women-led startup teams
• Finalists compete for £30,000 in equity-free prize funding
• Mentoring and expert guidance strengthen women founders’ business journeys

One of the other features of the program is its Experts-in-Residence service that offers personalised advice from industry experts. It provides a platform for women entrepreneurs to avail expert advice according to the level of development of their startups.

In addition to business support, they join a network of female entrepreneurs around the UK. Networking, peer learning, knowledge sharing, connections with other founders and long-term professional relationships are all created by the network. This relationship offers exposure to other entrepreneurial experiences and perspectives to an early stage woman entrepreneur.

The program also includes a significant funding opportunity. There will be a pitch competition for a prize fund of £30,000 in equity. Final teams will pitch for a portion of the £30,000 equity-free prize fund. The funding does not involve equity, so as long as the team is successful, they don't need to give up ownership of their startup to receive the prize. The competition also includes the Engineers in Business Award and the Lauren Dennis in Memoriam Award, which provide extra awards for teams participating.

The focus is towards teams led by women and linked to Imperial College, London. The team lead should be a current undergraduate or postgraduate student, an Early Career Researcher, or an Imperial graduate who has recently finished (last 2 years) their studies.

The program helps applicants to have a clear understanding of the problem that their start-up would address, the target customers, proposed solution, value, market opportunity, sustainability of the solution and the skills of the founding team. Participants may then test their assumptions and improve their business models through coaching, mentoring and masterclasses.

During the pitch stage finalists should clearly articulate their problem, solution, target market, value proposition, business model, supporting evidence, team capabilities, growth potential and how they would use the prize money.