Pitch Perfect: Venture Challenge Tech Entrepreneurs Impress Judges
For the third consecutive year, the Guernsey Venture Challenge, a joint initiative by the Digital Greenhouse and Blenheim Chalcot, has showcased the island's thriving tech ecosystem.
This year, a remarkable group of tech-focused entrepreneurs, eager to harness the power of digital tools, platforms and innovative processes participated in the competition.
Eight promising local tech ventures were selected for the 2024 Guernsey Venture Challenge and embarked on a six-week accelerator programme, mentored by seasoned professionals from Blenheim Chalcot. The culmination of this journey was the Pitch Night Final in September, where the businesses competed for substantial grant prizes from a pool of £70,000.
The businesses had a brief but impactful seven minutes to pitch their innovative ideas to a panel of expert judges. This year's judging panel included Xenia Levina, Head of Emerging Venture Opportunities Team at Blenheim Chalcot, Marc Cohen, Sole Partner at Unbundled VC and Paul Wilkes, Co-Founder of Onsey Capital.
Meet the winners!
Following the pitches the judges took time to discuss and decide on this year's Guernsey Venture Challenges Winners.
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The first prize was awarded to UN1TY who received £40,000!
Judges commented that the ESG Calc was a really great pitch that showcased an exciting product that's live, with live customers, a strong plan and a clear problem to solve.
UN1TY Co-Founder Mike Ozanne presented their ESG Calc product. ESG Calc is an Environmental Risk Analysis SaaS platform that simplifies risk assessments with intuitive dashboards allowing for accurate reporting and analysis.
Co-founder Mike Ozanne commented on his big win, "I'm so surprised! The level of talent tonight was incredible, the pitches were phenomenal. The businesses that presented themselves tonight, I was blown away- so I was so surprised that we stood out as being winners of tonight's event. I feel massively privileged to be both part of it and the winner."
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The second prize was awarded to MAP Health who received £20,000
The judges thought that the presentation for MAP Health was great, and the confident route to market plan really cemented their win.
MAP Health is a digital platform that allows non-specialist medical professionals to seamlessly integrate personalised medical wellness services into their practice using their dashboard, which allows real-time collaboration between clinicians and their patients as they work to improve selected health metrics.
Co-founder Claire Reach commented: "So exciting! This win means we can move to the next step and grow so much faster. The programme will fund our next big steps so we can continue to develop our business without having to worry about where the next meal is coming from."
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The third prize was awarded to Kloakify who received £10,000
The judges felt that it was a brilliant pitch, solving a real problem and Founder Jack Quick was very disciplined during judges' questions.
Kloakify helps people to send and receive sensitive documents like passport scans securely and easily, allowing them to control how the file is stored and used.
Founder Jack Quick commented, "I would just like to say a big thank you to the Digital Greenhouse and Blenheim Chalcot for the support and the mentoring, I did the venture challenge but also the Startup Academy as well and over that period of time it really helped me with some evolutionary change to hone in on what is my business, to build up my confidence and its a real, real boost. Hopefully one day, you'll be telling people that the next Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs started out here."
Each of the winners will be awarded their prizes at the Véyaon Awards taking place in November at Beau Sejour.
Ben Wratten, Interim Director at the Digital Greenhouse commented, "We are pleased that Guernsey Venture Challenge continues to showcase the strength and breadth of entrepreneurial activity taking place on the island. All of the businesses pitched strongly and we look forward to carrying on to support them all on their journey.”
