Venture Catalyst Challenge 2025
The Venture Catalyst Challenge is Imperial College London’s flagship entrepreneurial competition. With over a decade’s legacy, VCC continues to champion bold ideas and ambitious founders, driving breakthroughs that shape the future of science, technology, and society.
Follow the progress of the 2025 edition of VCC here!
Igniting the Next Decade of Innovation
Imperial’s Startup Competition of the Year.
Three Months. Five Tracks. £100,000!
The Venture Catalyst Challenge (VCC) is a world-class programme that empowers students and alumni to transform bold ideas into ventures with real-world impact. Designed to accelerate the very best early-stage startups, VCC provides founders with the visibility, mentorship, and resources they need to break out of Imperial’s ecosystem and scale globally.
Now in its 12th year, VCC has a proven track record of identifying and nurturing pioneering founders and ventures. For 2025, we are proud to welcome 25 exceptional teams, selected from hundreds of applications across Imperial.
The impact speaks for itself: alumni have gone on to raise over £300 million in funding and create more than 750 jobs worldwide. Success stories include Notpla, winner of the Earthshot Prize for Building a Waste-Free World, alongside a growing list of startups tackling some of the planet’s most pressing challenges.
What sets VCC apart is its rigorous selection and acceleration process. Startups are assessed for the strength of their ideas, the scale of their potential impact, and the drive of their founding teams. Top-performing ventures receive in-depth feedback, expert mentorship, and access to Imperial’s network of industry leaders and investors, culminating in a high-profile final where winners are awarded across five tracks.
VCC 2025 is more than a competition. It’s where the next generation of innovators take their first steps toward transforming industries, shaping society, and building the future.
Pioneers of Tomorrow:
The Teams Competing in VCC 2025
AI & Robotics
- Arti Labs
- AuraMine
- Cardiovolt.ai
- CareRobotics
- ClearXview
Creative & Consumer
Digital & Finance
Energy & Environment
Health & Wellbeing
This year, we are proud to welcome 65 innovators driving forward a remarkable range of ventures. These exceptional startups have been selected for their bold ideas, groundbreaking research, and unwavering commitment to delivering real-world impact.
From AI and medtech to climate innovation, sustainability, and deep tech, the 2025 cohort is redefining what’s possible, pushing boundaries, challenging industries, and building the solutions of tomorrow. Each team brings a unique vision and a passion for tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
The journey will culminate at the Grand Final, where the winning team from each track will take the stage to pitch their ideas to a panel of industry-leading judges, investors, and entrepreneurs. One standout venture will be crowned the VCC 2025 Champion, securing the £30,000 grand prize and the opportunity to take their innovation to the next level.
Discover the full line-up of this year’s ventures, explore their cutting-edge business ideas, and meet the ambitious founders shaping the future here.
Inside the VCC Journey
Follow the highs, challenges, and breakthroughs of our 2025 cohort as they move from bold ideas to game-changing ventures.
Cohort Launch Event
Founder Stories
Branding & Marketing Masterclass
Early Sales Masterclass with Nick Telson-Sillet
VCC Alumni Panel Day
Team Values Workshop with Natalie Pearce
VCC Fundraising Panel
Accelerator Visit Day
Alternative Fundraising Workshop
Financial Modelling Workshop
Building Pitch Deck
Team Building/Hiring in DeepTech
Leveraging Canva for Business
Magician's Storytelling Workshop
VCC Track Heats
21-22 Oct 2025
Each Track has a Heat where competing teams pitch to a panel of judges. Think of these as our programme semi-finals. Five Track winners will each be awarded £10,000 and proceed to take part in the VCC Grand Final. Which teams will make it through?
We can now reveal our five VCC 2025 finalists! Congratulations to the teams.
Meet Finalists Now!
VCC 2025 Finalists
Introducing Our Five Teams Competing in the Grand Final
Meet our 2025 Finalists
We are thrilled to name the five Finalists of the 12th edition of the VCC programme. For over a decade, VCC has showcased the entrepreneurial talent of Imperial College students and championed their innovative startup ideas. It gives us great pleasure to present the five teams selected from this year’s outstanding cohort who will be pitching their innovations to our panel of judges at the Grand Final on the 6th November 2025.
Our strong field of finalists illustrates the diversity of innovation thriving across Imperial College. Join us at the Grand Final to find out which team takes home the ultimate prize!
AI & Robotics
Cardiovolt.ai
Creative & Consumer
PHLYXR
Digital & Finance
Reporti
Energy & Environment
Muju Earth
Health & Wellbeing
Arcus Dental
The 2025 Judging Panel
Nirmala Santiapillai
VP of Commercial Operations
Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Nirmala brings extensive experience from the healthcare industry, spanning programme leadership, business improvement, customer experience, and commercial strategy. Before Oxford Nanopore, she held senior roles at General Electric Healthcare, focusing on marketing, commercial strategy, and customer service, enhancing operational efficiency and customer satisfaction across global teams. Her leadership has included building effective teams, driving process improvements, and successfully integrating business process outsourcing to streamline operational workflows.
Nirmala holds a PhD in Neurochemistry from the University of Cambridge and a BSc in Biochemistry from Imperial College London. She remains dedicated to continuous improvement and customer-focused innovation, emphasising automation and technical excellence to enhance customer experience and enable Oxford Nanopore’s growth ambitions.
Rodrigo García
Cofounder & Co-CEO
Notpla
Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez is a Designer, Architect, and Inventor, with the goal of making packaging disappear. Their first product Ooho is an edible package made of seaweed that can contain water or any other liquid and had been used in several sports events like the London Marathon or Roland-Garros.
Notpla won Prince William’s £1,000,000 Earthshot Prize. On top of that Notpla won the Grand Prix in Design at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity; the World Technology Award by Fortune and TIME, the WIRED start-up of the year and the GreenTech Award.
Rodrigo is part of the Jury of the Prize Princesa de Asturias of International Cooperation. He is the 2024 European Young Leaders Spanish representative, alongside 40 other talented changemakers from across Europe, on a mission to catalyze change and work towards a more sustainable and forward-looking Europe. Rodrigo holds a double nationality Spanish and British.
Rebeca Santamaria
Director, Business & Corporate Development Google DeepMind
Dr. Rebeca leads strategic partnerships and drives the translation of breakthrough AI technologies into impactful real-world solutions. With over a decade’s experience building industry collaborations at the intersection of research, innovation, and commercialisation, including a distinguished tenure at Imperial College London.
Rebeca is internationally recognized for advancing technology transfer, fostering startup growth, and enabling high-impact partnerships. Her academic background spans analytical chemistry and strategic business leadership, and she has earned numerous awards for her excellence and leadership in the UK’s innovation ecosystem.
She is a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP), demonstrating her expertise in commercializing research and managing intellectual property. Her work has been particularly notable in facilitating partnerships between academia and industry, including high-profile collaborations such as the Imperial-HeartFlow partnership that brought AI technology into clinical practice.
With Special Thanks to Our Sponsors
A huge thank you to our supporters for their valuable contribution to the Venture Catalyst Challenge.
The VCC is the largest prize fund of any UK-based university, only made possible through the financial support of our sponsors. Thanks to their generosity and commitment to backing the next generation of innovators, we are empowering participants with vital skills, exposure and acceleration to thrive beyond Imperial College in the wider commercial world.
Director of Entrepreneurship
Health & Wellbeing Track Sponsor
Digital & Finance Track Sponsor
Energy & Environment Track Sponsor
AI & Robotics Track Sponsor
Creative & Consumer Track Sponsor
