Santander X UK Award 2022
Calling university start-ups! Enter your innovative business and win a range of exclusive prizes, including mentoring, start-up support and a share of £150,000 in equity-free funding.
Applications for the Santander X UK Awards 2022 closed Friday 30th September.
What is the awards programme?
First launched in 2011, Santander's annual Entrepreneurship Awards have become one of the UK's largest student and graduate business pitching competitions. To date, they've supported hundreds of early-stage entrepreneurs and provided more than £750,000 in equity-free funding to start-ups and small businesses.
Recent winners have included Chip[s] Board, Wase, Cosi Care, Konglomerate Games and Sojo.
This year, the awards are going global. Win the Santander X UK Awards and you'll secure an automatic place in the Santander X Global Award, Santander's international university entrepreneurship competition.
There, you'll represent the UK and compete with entrepreneurs from countries across Europe and South America to win cash prizes and other benefits to take your business to the next level.
Do you have what it takes to go up against the best university start-ups worldwide?
2022 programme: How it works
This year's programme has two categories: Launch (for new businesses) and Accelerate (for growing businesses). Scroll down the page to see the eligibility criteria for each category.
Applications
The application process will open Friday 2 September and close Friday 30 September. You can apply to the Santander X UK Awards Programme here. We recommend you use either Microsoft Edge or Safari as preferred browsers.
Selection
Enterprise Nation and Santander will select up to 60 start-ups in each category. We'll review applications on a rolling basis, so apply early to give yourself the best chance of being accepted.
Awards programme
If selected, you'll join an intensive six-week programme of in-person and online training. During these sessions, you'll receive expert advice on all areas of business, to prepare you for the upcoming pitching events. The training programme kicks off with an online event on 12 October. There will be an all-day in-person event in Birmingham on 25 October.
Pitching events – heats and semi-final
Once you've finished your training, you'll be invited to take part in a day-long pitching event, where you'll pitch your business in live quarter-final and semi-final heats.
Pitching event – national final
Make it to the final 12 businesses (six per category) and you'll get the chance to pitch to a high-profile judging panel at the live national final in London in November.
Global finals
The six winning businesses (three per category) from the Santander X UK Awards 2022 national final will automatically progress to the Santander X Global Award to compete against university start-ups from across Europe and Latin America.
Watch highlights from last year's competition for a taster of what the awards involve:
Eligibility
Your business must be based in the UK and meet the following criteria (depending on which category you enter). (See Note below.)
Launch
Your business must:
- Be disruptive and innovative, with the ability to scale
- Be linked to a UK university (at least one team member must be a current student or employee, a graduate of the last five years (since 2017), or an entrepreneur from a university incubator, accelerator or spin-out)
- Be preparing to go to market
- Have a team of two people or more (if you are a solo founder this can include advisors/board members and/or full/part-time staff)
- Have a minimum viable product (MVP)
Accelerate
Your business must:
- Be disruptive and innovative, with the ability to scale
- Be incorporated and registered as a UK company
- Be linked to a UK university (at least one team member must be a current student or employee, a graduate of the last five years (since 2017), or an entrepreneur from a university incubator, accelerator or spin-out)
Your business must also meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Have a product and/or service already in the market with an annual sales revenue of £250,000 or less
- Have raised seed funding of between £50,000 and £850,000
- Have two to 25 full-time employees (this can include your founding team)
Note: You can only apply for the programme once, even if you have a number of businesses and/or separate businesses which match the criteria for both Launch and Accelerate.
Prizes
Successful participants and finalists will receive the following equity-free grants and prizes:
Launch
- 1st place: £15,000
- 2nd place: £10,000
- 3rd place: £5,000
- 4th–6th place: £2,500
- All non-finalists in the launch category who complete the programme will receive a grant of £1,000.
Accelerate
- 1st place: £20,000
- 2nd place: £15,000
- 3rd place: £10,000
The top six per category will also receive a package of support including mentoring, free co-working space and software.
How to enter
You must complete an application form on the Santander X platform.