SalesGossip, a UK-based online service that alerts bargain hunters immediately when a new sale is announced, has won the top prize at what claimed to be the world’s largest student business competition.
The RBS EnterprisingU competition picked SalesGossip for the £25,000 ($40,000) top prize and the company also received venture capital backing from Find Invest Grow (FIG).
FIG, an incubator and investment firm that focuses on the student and recent graduate market, had worked with Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) and business network LinkedIn to run the competition, which had more than 1,317 entrants, as well as an accreditation scheme to boost entrepreneurship in student societies.
Elisabetta Camilleri, co-founder of SalesGossip (pictured, centred, with the prize), said: "We are thrilled with the endorsement of our hard work to date and the prize will help us make the online and mobile service even better."
University of East London’s Thomas Lipinksi of Ventive, a company that plans to use recycled hot air as ventillation in buildings, was second, winning £10,000, while Windows Phone Geek, a marketplace for software provider Microsoft’s Windows phone application developers, started by Boryana Miloshevska and Yordan Pavlov from University College London, took £5,000 for third place.
The other finalists were Bertie and Bean, a children’s clothing exchange, Chadex, a marketplace providing charities with access to donated premium online advertising space, and Unisport, a sports media company focused on university sport.
The competition is the second project RBS Group, LinkedIn and FIG have collaborated on. The three firms have run an, sponsored by RBS Group and LinkedIn, the RBS Enterprising Student Societies Accreditation (RBS ESSA) that.
Adrian Clark, one of the judges and director of New Model Venture Capital, said "The quality of the competing businesses was fantastic. Our partnership with FIG means we hope to invest in the sort of young businesses they support and this evening showed just how much potential those businesses have."
