News

Venture 2025 Winners: Scotland’s New Wave of Entrepreneurs

Student, staff and graduate startups were recognised at Venture, winning seed funding and programme places during the University’s Entrepreneurship Week.

Published on 7 April 2025

Brian McNicoll and Amy Winter hold a large cheque at the Venture 2025 awards event

Brian McNicoll and Amy Winter

Fledgling enterprises from students, staff and graduates were all recognised, with winners receiving seed funding from category supporters to help turn their ideas into reality. Additionally, all winners received a place on Elevator’s summer business accelerator programme, giving them expert guidance as they developed their plans.

The Venture final marked the culmination of the University’s annual Entrepreneurship Week, a series of workshops and lectures championing opportunities for businesses in Scotland. 

This event is at the core of the University’s effort to support budding businesspeople, which has recently received national and international recognition. 

“It was inspiring to witness more of our early-stage entrepreneurs deliver compelling pitches to a packed audience and a panel of esteemed judges at Venture. Their innovation and ambition were on full display, reflecting the incredible potential within our entrepreneurial community. A huge thanks goes out to our external prize funding supporters, whose unwavering support underpins the level of excellence in this competition.”

Brian McNicoll, Head of Entrepreneurship

The Venture 2025 winners were as follows:

Microfinance supported by Converge:

  • Resourie Studio – Bethan White £2,500
  • AFRE – Daniel Afe £1,000
  • CryoProtecX – Shravan Rathod £1,000
  • Pathway – Cathal Gibson £500

Science and Engineering Student/Recent Graduate Award – Supported by Engineers in Business Fellowship

  • NaeWhisky – Clara Seyfried & Mudather Mohamedhassan £1,000

Student and Recent Graduate Award:

  • AI-MZ - Aroob Manzoor & Finlay Macken £4,500
  • accessAble Scot - Amy Winter £1,000

Staff Award:

  • Earthclust - Hajk-Georg Drost £7,000
  • SolDefender - David Bajek & Ewan Eadie £2,000

Digital Award supported by TechScaler: 

  • AI-MZ - Aroob Manzoor & Finlay Macken £5,000

Social Award supported by Ruby Capital: 

  • accessAble Scot - Amy Winter £2,500

McGhee Award:

  • AI-MZ - Aroob Manzoor & Finlay Macken £12,500
  • EarthClust – Hajk-Georg Drost £12,500
  • MammoCheck – Athina Grigoriou £12,000
Story category Student work/achievement, Transforming lives, Student successes