Innovative ARU business ideas receive backing
Annual ThinkBigARU competition lets students and graduates get support for startups
Ideas ranging from self-watering plant pots to cyber-attack protection for small businesses have received prizes at Anglia Ruskin University’s annual pitching competition, ThinkBigARU.
The initiative is open to all ARU students and recent graduates with a business idea, or who are already running a business, and the goal of the competition is to encourage innovative thinking and entrepreneurship across the university.
After clearing the shortlisting process, participants in ThinkBigARU were invited to pitch for mentoring and other forms of investment. This year’s competition was sponsored by the Engineers and Scientists in Business Fellowship (ESBF) and the North Essex Economic Board (NEEB), who together provided £4,500 for the initiative.
This year’s event saw funding given to the following projects:
- Smartplanter – Led by Tina and Jed Curwen, Smartplanter is a self watering plant pot system that allows users to monitor and control plant care remotely. The team was awarded £1,000.
- Wiggly Wonder Academy – Developed by Tamudaishe Angelica, Wiggly Wonder Academy is an early stage EdTech platform offering personalised, child centred digital learning to support early learners and educators. Tamudaishe’s project was awarded £750.
- HeaveNest – HeaveNest is an IT company created by Heaven Adejugbe, designed to protect small and medium sized businesses from cyber risks. Heaven’s project received £750.
- Sentinel 7 – Rebecca Lyall, Magida Zoughaib, James Gahlot, Aditi Ravindra and Sri Venkata Lakshimmi Akili developed Sentinel 7, a patent pending system that automatically removes zips and metal components to enable large scale textile recycling. The team was awarded £500.
- Muromo – Founded by Tadiwa Gumbwa, Muromo is an all-in-one hygiene solution for cleaning, drying and safely storing oral appliances like mouth guards and dentures. The project received £750.
- SNL Robotics – Developed by Zayeem Mitayeegiri, Aiden Stagg and Rubio Paez, SNL Robotics is creating autonomous swarm robots to clean and inspect ship hulls more safely, efficiently and sustainably. The team was awarded £750.
Three additional initiatives also received prizes:
- The Happiness Co – Created by Rosie Morley, The Happiness Co designs inclusive, affordable wellbeing and mindfulness gift boxes to support emotional health. Rosie won the Best Business Idea Award and £100.
- Vaughan Motifs – Founded by Conan Vaughan, Vaughan Motifs helps start ups and independent businesses build meaningful brand identities rooted in their core values. Conan received £50 and the award for Best Pitch/Presentation.
- UMBRA – Funded by Alessandro Minutella, UMBRA is an AI personal trainer designed to make professional level gym guidance accessible and reduce injury risk. The project was awarded £50 and Alessandro won the award for the Best Pitch Deck.
“The standard of this year’s ThinkBigARU has been excellent, with students and graduates from across our campuses and faculties coming up with ideas that are ambitious, well researched and geared towards solving real world challenges.
“What has been most inspiring is the entrepreneurial mindset shown by the participants. These projects reflect not only strong business potential, but also the creativity, resilience and drive that define the ARU community, and we are proud to support these future entrepreneurial leaders as they take their next steps.”
Professor Gary Packham, Pro Vice Chancellor for Student Entrepreneurship at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU)The competition is organised by the Anglia Ruskin Enterprise Academy, the central hub for student enterprise and entrepreneurship at ARU. Data released last year by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) showed that ARU is first in the East of England and seventh in the UK for the number of student startups. ARU was also the first institution in the UK to receive the Entrepreneurial University Award from the National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education (NCEE).