Inspire Entrepreneur’s Founder Sukhveer Atwal receiving the award for the People’s Choice at the regional semi-finals of the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards 2019 in Nottingham and she will pitch in the National finals in London in October.
The Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards, running since 2011, are aimed at giving a financial boost and ongoing support to student and graduate start-ups. As a winner of the People’s Choice Award, Inspire is invited to an accelerator week and the national final were they will compete for £7,500 of seed funding and a fully funded Santander intern.
Inspire launched a social impact branch of the company, Inspire Entrepreneurs in November 2018. As a prevention provision, Inspire Entrepreneurs aims to engage young people vulnerable to exploitation through enterprising education. Being the only business from Birmingham to get this far, Sukhveer is not only representing her impactful company but the city as a whole, which is an honor in itself as she explains:
“I had the amazing opportunity to appear alongside nine other businesses to pitch Inspire to over 70 people, who then voted me as the winner of the People’s Choice Award. It’s amazing to see how many people are passionate about supporting children from disadvantaged backgrounds and felt that the provisions Inspire provides will help raise aspirations of local young people.”
After winning the People’s Choice Award, Inspire was awarded £1000 of seed funding which will contribute to their pilots of Inspire Entrepreneurs launching in September in Birmingham local schools. These programs will last six weeks and will help give young people an opportunity to understand how to start their own enterprise and raise their aspirations.
