Graduate Enterprise | Graduates zoom to success at online investment showcase

GradInvest 2020, the event which gives recent graduates an opportunity to pitch for investment and support for their start-ups, took place on the Zoom online conferencing platform on 21 May to an audience of over 180.

From reducing the queue for ladies’ loos, shaping up international shipping to developing smarter prosthetics, 17 early stage ventures, all started by students or recent graduates from the SETsquared partner universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey, pitched their innovative ideas.

Find out more about the 17 start-ups that took part

GradInvest would normally take place in London and this year with no travel or traffic to contend with, the online format offered both delegates and pitching companies with a unique opportunity to meet and learn about each other from the comfort and safety of their own homes. As well as a five-minute pitching slot for each of the start-ups there were multiple opportunities to follow up both directly afterwards in the Zoom breakout rooms and after the event.

James Naylor from Livitay, one of the pitching companies said: “I’ve attended and taken part in many webinars over the last two months, as we all have, and in GradInvest, SETsquared has managed to build an event which really stands out in terms of its quality and professionalism. The process leading up to the event has been really valuable. What I pitched on the day, was so different to my pitch four months ago at the start of the process. This is down to the pitch refinement and mentoring from SETsquared.”

Siobain Hone, Head of SETsquared’s Student Enterprise Practice Group said: “The quality of the companies this year was absolutely outstanding. We run a thorough selection and training programme for this event and when we began the process in February, we did not envisage that we wouldn’t be able to run this as a physical event. The companies have had to be very flexible to adapt to the changing situation and all delivered their online pitch on the day like pros. I’m really encouraged by the level of interest from investors and look forward to hearing in the coming months about new relationships and deals resulting from this event.”

Impressively, five of the seventeen graduate companies to showcase at this year’s #GradInvest2020 were University of Bath alumni with start-ups ranging from a digital mobility aid, faster sepsis detection and portable washing machines.