Seedcamp offers 50,000 prize to start your own company

Published on Sunday 8 June 2008 21:37

ENTREPRENEURS looking for money to fund business plans are being targeted by an organisation set-up to help innovators develop their technology ideas.

A contest for funds, run by the Seedcamp organisation, opens this month and teams have until the end of July to submit their entries. Budding entrepreneurs from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa will compete for 50,000 (39,400) prize.

Teams will be given access to venture capitalists, accountants, lawyers and other business advisers, who will help them to develop their business ideas and form useful relationships.

And at the end of a week in which their ideas will be tested, the business mentors will help the judges to pick five winning teams, each of which will receive 50,000 and help to develop their ideas further.

In return for seed funding, Seedcamp will take a 10 per cent stake in the new business: purposefully low so that the teams do not have to give away a large portion of their companies.

The money will allow the budding entrepreneurs to move to London for three months, during which time they will be helped to develop their products and their business models.

Teams will have access to the same network of product designers, marketing specialists and other experts that helped the competitors during Seedcamp Week. Advice will be given on how to seek further funding and on the potential for mergers and acquisitions.

Six weeks into the project, Seedcamp will hold a "demo day" at which teams will be able to show off their products to a select group of investors. The teams will have a second chance, at the ten-week stage, to present their products to other potential investors.

Seedcamp chief executive Reshma Sohoni wants to encourage more students – postgraduates and undergraduates – to take part in the competition.

She said: "It's a lot easier to take risks and start your own business when you are young. "When you are older you have more responsibilities, such as a family and a mortgage."

Half of Seedcamp's cash comes from venture capitalists, particularly funds in Sweden, while the other half comes from so-called archangels, including some Germans, according to Seedcamp's organisers.