An exciting evening comprising of eight businesses pitching for funding to help kick start their startups.
What is the Guernsey Venture Challenge?
Launched this year and run by the Digital Greenhouse in partnership with Blenheim Chalcot, the Guernsey Venture Challenge (GVC) is the island’s first funded business accelerator. GVC is for new businesses based in Guernsey looking to scale. It gives the opportunity to attain early stage funding to accelerate their development and help get established.
The challenge offers £65,000 of grants to support local startup businesses, comprising of:
- £40,000 First Prize
- £20,000 Second Prize
- £5,000 Young-preneur Prize for the best entrepreneur under the age of 25.
This is made possible through the SMART Guernsey programme, committed to supporting Guernsey's economic development, creating significant and new opportunities for on-island businesses, entrepreneurs, employees and students.
The eight shortlisted business for 2022 are:
- EaseeDo - an assistive software designed to support executive function, the mental skill-set key to planning and completing tasks, maintaining attention, regulating emotions and self-monitoring.
- Evidence - a new impact measurement and management (IMM) solution for the investment funds industry to measure the environmental and social performance of investments that is being brought to the market by Innovest, an established Guernsey based impact investment advisory firm.
- ISO-PASS - a fitness on demand app using day-passes to maximise the spare capacity in gyms.
- NionNet Origin - a code generation engine liberating developers from the repetitive work required in the application development process.
- Sentient Software - An automated loan creation and management solution that comprises origination, credit checking, risk management, offers, accounting, e-signatures, documents and fulfilment.
- Sleep Better Live Better - a platform providing science-based advice, information and products that can help to improve the way that young people and adults in our society sleep.
- Troupa - a web-based software application which provides an integrated toolkit for project managers and programme directors to effectively and efficiently manage and report on their portfolio of projects.
The Judges
Dr Jamie Coleman
Co-Founder and COO at LockBody Therapeutics, a Centessa companyDr Jamie Coleman is a technology entrepreneur who has spent the last 20 years building companies. He began his career in cardiovascular physiology before setting up his own software companies.
Jamie is the CoFounder of CodeBase, the UK's largest tech incubator. CodeBase companies have raised in excess of $750 million dollars of investment and created over 3000 new jobs in Edinburgh in the last 7 years.
He was the Founder of the Turing Festival; a Board member of The Edinburgh International Festival; a Board member of ScotlandIS and is currently a Board Member of the Creative Industries Federation. He is the CoFounder of UltraHuman, a cancer drug discovery company which in turn spun out LockBody Therapeutics, Granular Therapeutics and UltraHuman Eight Ltd. LockBody Therapeutics has recently been acquired Jamie remains COO. He has been involved for many years in the interface between software, healthcare and investment.
Fiona Bateson
Director, Guernsey Community FoundationFiona Bateson, MBA (Henley), MA (Psychotherapy), is a non-executive director of both Savernake Management Ltd and Savernake Capital Ltd (a Guernsey registered fund manager). She is also a director of the Guernsey Community Foundation. She has an active interest in supporting start-ups, with investments in 25 companies based in either Guernsey or the UK.
Fiona’s career started in the City, ranging across broking and investment banking. She then spent 10 years in management consulting with Harbridge House, and was a visiting lecturer at Henley Business School. She went on to set up her own management consulting business, specialising in organsiations based in the finance industry. Her clients included Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC), Zurich Insurance, Zurich Re, Kleinwort Benson Investment Management, HFC, John Charcol, BP and the Cabinet Office. Her specialism covers strategy implementation, through to leadership and culture change, working primarily with main boards and senior management teams. Fiona is also a UKCP accredited psychotherapist and holds a Diploma in Company Direction.
Nick Gregg
Strategic Projects Lead at Blenheim ChalcotPreviously Head of Investments at Blenheim Chalcot, Nick now leads new Strategic Projects.
He started his career at Monitor Company followed by a number of years leading Internet & software equity research at HSBC Securities and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (now CSFB). He also spent over 10 years as an entrepreneur which has included founding Milkround Online, StrategyEye and EditorEye Intelligence.
Nick has worked very closely with many of the Blenheim Chalcot businesses since its inception in 1998. Nick holds an MA from Cambridge University in Engineering.
