Following a competitive semi-final, the seven finalists for this year’s Tata Varsity Pitch powered by NACUE have been announced, with two teams coming from Imperial.
The Tata Varsity Pitch 2019 – a national business competition run by the charity that supports student and graduate entrepreneurs – received a record 424 entries this year. Entrepreneurs from over 80 UK institutions applied for this year’s £15k equity free prize fund.
The Imperial teams that have made it through to the final are:
Motics – Digital & Technical with Jaguar Land Rover
10 million people need physiotherapy every year in the UK alone, but the problem is that 70% do not engage. Leading to poor recovery, and worse injuries in the future, it costs the NHS an estimated £4,000 every minute. Even with good adherence, physiotherapists struggle to accurately measure muscle function, leading to inaccurate estimates on recovery time. Motics solves this through a combination of hardware and software – by measuring muscle function, stimulating muscle activity and employing ‘game’ software to provide an enjoyable physiotherapy experience – delivering advanced data analytics for physiotherapists to accurately measure muscle activity, and improve recovery times. Co-founded by Harvinder Power, Salinna Abdullah and Peter Wilson. www.motics.me @moticsme
First Step – Ideas with Tata Communications
In the UK, 1 in 12 female undergraduate students are raped whilst at University, with 1 in 4 cases occurring when the victims are heavily intoxicated or even unconscious. Due to memory blackouts and feelings of shame and uncertainty, most are unwilling to seek medical help or to report what has happened. First Step is developing a self-administered and accessible forensic device that can detect the evidence of sexual assault. It will be locally available from centres with duty of care, e.g. the Security at University Halls of Residence. The device will use vaginal swabs, which can be taken by the individual themselves, to detect the presence of semen or the male Y chromosome. The result will be rapid, and give a clear visual result, to provide these women with assurance to empower them to take the first steps towards receiving medical aid and justice.
Founded by entrepreneur Molly Steadman. @mollysteadman1
All seven category winners now progress to a business boot-camp before pitching at the grand final on Wednesday 20th November at the Knowledge Centre of the British Library. The flagship event is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Holly Knower, CEO, NACUE said “NACUE would like to thank all of the entrepreneurs who applied for this year’s competition and to the thirty semi-finalists for pitching hard to get through. Our congratulations go out to the category winners and we look forward to the next stage and the final pitches! We’d also like to thank NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator, London for hosting our semi-finals and of course Tata for their continued involvement and long-term support of the Tata Varsity Pitch”.
