The winners have been announced for the Santander X UK Awards 2024, at a national final event at Unity Place in Milton Keynes. The winning businesses are Even and Soil Benchmark Ltd.
The 12 finalists pitched to a panel of high-profile judges, including Gary Neville, Dame Jess Ennis-Hill, Dragon’s Den star Sam Jones, and former Head of Social at Gymshark, Elfried Samba, alongside Santander’s CEO, Mike Regnier on 14 November.
Santander has been running an annual entrepreneurship competition for 14 years and in this time has provided more than £1 million in equity-free funding to thousands of UK start-ups and small businesses.
Santander announced the winners of the Santander X UK Awards 2024 at a national final event held in Unity Place, the bank’s headquarters in Milton Keynes, on 14th November.
The six winners, who were selected from 12 finalists who pitched in front of panels of high-profile judges at the event, are:
University category
1st place, £15,000: Even | Sarah Bailey, Anushka Mahesh & Aurusha Kharas | University of Bristol | Radical, low-cost period underwear for the humanitarian sector and low-income communities. More information: https://theevenproject.com/
2nd place, £10,000: iNatural | Abhishek Gupta | University of Wolverhampton | iNatural Ltd is a biotech start-up developing advanced hydrogel as dressings that leverage natural biomaterials to promote wound healing. More information: http://inaturalltd.com/
3rd place, £5,000: Sealeo | Diana Epel and Emanuele Griccioli | Imperial College London | Sealeo ensures the delivery of life-saving medicine with innovative, affordable, and biodegradable packaging. More information: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/sealeo
Startup category
1st place, £25,000: Soil Benchmark | Tom Scrope | Soil Benchmark helps farms improve soil health by creating AI-driven Soil Management Plans, now serving 1300+ farms covering 4% of England. More information: Soil Benchmark | Soil Management Plans for SFI
2nd place, £15,000: Innerworks | Oliver Quie | Innerworks prevents fraud and improves trust online with intelligent bot detection and user authentication. More information: https://www.innerworks.me/
3rd place, £10,000: Luna | Jo Goodall | The World’s first digital health and wellbeing companion for tweens/teens. More information: https://weareluna.app/
The six winners also go forward to represent the UK in the Santander X Global Awards, Santander’s international entrepreneurship competition.
Tom Scrope, founder of Soil Benchmark, said: “We have a product, we know it works - we just need to get the word out and more farmers using it, so any publicity we can get is invaluable. I’m not going to pretend that standing up in front of Gary Neville and Jess Ennis-Hill wasn’t nerve-wracking, but what a brilliant experience. The Santander X UK Awards is a very high-profile competition for start-ups and we’re so grateful and proud to have won it.”
Mike Regnier, Santander UK CEO, said: “I thoroughly look forward to judging at the Santander X Awards each year. Start-ups play a vital role in stimulating growth and innovation in the UK economy, but they face many challenges. The X Awards are just one way we’re helping the country’s most exciting new entrepreneurs to overcome these challenges through vital funding, skill-building, and fostering connections along the way. A huge congratulations to this year’s six winners – I look forward to watching your businesses grow.”
The Awards have long been regarded as one of the UK’s largest university and early-stage business pitching competitions. To date, they have supported thousands of early-stage entrepreneurs and provided more than £1 million in equity-free funding to start-ups and small businesses.
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Notes to editors
The six winners are available for interview. Please register interest with the media contacts below.
More about the Santander X UK Awards: https://www.santanderx.com/en/sites/santander-x-uk-awards.html
More about the Santander X Global Award: https://www.santanderx.com/en/sites/santander-x-global-award.html