Cutting-edge students from London’s City University took part in the long-awaited Stage Two of CitySpark’s ‘design and doing’ competition at The Bakery co-working space.
Stage Two challenged the entrepreneurs to create viable business models for their startups.
29 entries were whittled down to 16 for an ‘investor showcase’ known as the marketplace.
Doing away with a traditional judging panel format, this event put finalists and judges in an informal showcase setting where the judges voted with paper money by investing it at the CitySpark Investment bank.
5 lucky startups received £3,000 each in funding and places on the CitySpark Summer Accelerator program to help them take their ideas to Stage Three- the chance to build their own prototypes.
The winning startups
iSleepEasii– A group of City University optometry students have developed a protective shield which blocks insomnia-causing blue light from smartphones and tablets.
Nudge– A wristband developed by three PhD students, which gives users with diabetes more control over the disease.
UrbanEmber– An urban discovery app for finding the best areas for going out, by using heat-maps.
Popcord– A super-portable mobile phone charger, based around USB technology, which allows users to top up their device’s battery level on the go. Founders Frank Milani and Matt Sandrini have already raised £47,000 for the project on Kickstarter.
Eatro– Described by the Evening Standard as ‘so zeitgeist’, Eatro is a ‘peer-to-peer’ takeaway service, allowing users to purchase homecooked meals from others.
Disclosure: Tech City News’ Editor in Chief Alex Wood is also a visiting lecturer in online journalism at City University