Student business contest The Grad Factor launches 2015 bus tour

The Grad Factor, a government-backed business pitch contest for students, has announced the launch of its nationwide 2015 bus tour throughout October.

The competition was established to encourage entrepreneurial students to get involved in enterprise, nurturing innovative new companies and facilitating job creation.

This year students are competing in four awards categories, each with a prize of £10,000 worth of value and support – including public relations and brand promotion, mentoring and free banking. Entrants must submit a short video pitch of no longer than 60 seconds via YouTube.

A judging panel will select start-ups to progress to the invitation-only regional finals before three finalists from each category are chosen to attend the grand final at Royal Bank of Scotland’s London headquarters on 10 December.

The campaign will start in Cardiff on 6 October and visit universities in Exeter, Bath, London, Birmingham and Manchester before finishing in Edinburgh on 30 October.

Each event will run between 12pm and 4pm, giving entrepreneurial students the chance to run their business pitch by the event organisers before the competition opens for the first round of video entries between 28 September and 31 October.

2015’s event is run in partnership with RBS and NatWest, sponsored by Innovify and sponsored by Start-up Britain.

Keith Chaplin-Mabbutt, founder of The Grad Factor, said: “Apparently one in four students within Higher Education now want to start a business or have already done so.

“Knowing the importance that entrepreneurs have for economic growth, innovation and job creation we want to fully harness this fantastic potential and support budding entrepreneurs to provide them with the skills and resources they need to help build their ideas into successful and sustainable businesses. I’m looking forward to The Grad Factor showcasing the very best student entrepreneurs and start up talent across the UK.”

Maulik Sailor, founder & CEO at Innovify, commented: “The high failure rate in the UK start-up scene is primarily due to the fundamental problem many founders face – finding the right technical co-founder, or chief technology officer to effectively create the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for launch. We want to make student entrepreneurs more aware of this problem and help them create the next multi-million pound company.”

You can find out more about The Grad Factor and enter the competition here.