InvEnterPrize 2024 winners announced
Left to Right: Huw Morgan, Chair of the InvEnterPrize judging panel with winners Lindsay Hayns from PropAPlant and Kara and Sam Penfold from Pearly Bites, and judges Jamila La Malfa-Donaldson, Jamal Hassim and David Sargen.
A sparkling new approach to cleaning children’s teeth and a business that grows and sells colourful house plants are the joint winners of Aberystwyth University’s annual entrepreneurship competition.
Now in its 10th year, InvEnterPrize is a Dragon’s Den style competition that is open to all Aberystwyth University students and recent graduates and provides cash prizes and business support to the winning entries.
Twenty-two business ideas were entered this year with thirty-three students and graduates representing eleven academic departments across the University taking part.
Seven made it through to the final round, and the opportunity to present their ideas to a panel of judges made up of Aberystwyth University alumni.
Following an intense day of presentations and probing by the judges, two proposals -Pearly Bites and PropAPlant - were judged worthy winners and shared the top prize of £10,000 which is funded by Aberystwyth alumni.
Pearly Bites is the brainchild of Kara Penfold, who qualified as a teacher from Aberystwyth University last year, and her husband Sam.
Five years in the making and tried and tested by their own children, their toothpaste tablet which dissolves on the tongue does away with traditional toothpaste, and can even help young children who don’t like to brush their teeth.
Kara and Sam also believe their invention could also make a significant contribution to reducing tooth decay in children.
Kara said: “Our product has been made with a team of experts at the top of their profession and tested to the highest standard, and we believe it will prove to be a game changer as the original oral health tablet.”
“We believe in our product, we know what it is, we know how good it is, and how popular it is with our own children, but to hear the judges grill us and then actually think it’s as good as we think it is, shows that people believe in us.”
“Winning InvEnterPrize means we can go to market. We now have the money to produce our first batch and hope to be on the market before Christmas.”
Agriculture and Animal Science graduate Lindsay Hayns has been tending her potted plant business PropAPlant for some time, winning InvEnterPrize on her second attempt.
Lindsay’s business sells rare and colourful houseplants such as Acroids with their bright greens, pinks, reds, yellows and white and deeply coloured leaves.
Currently based in Brighton, where she combines running her business with lecturing at a local college, Lindsay now plans to look for commercial premises where she can expand her growing operation.
“Winning InvEnterPrize means that I can push my business further than it has ever been pushed before. Coming back to the competition this year, having taken valuable lessons from taking part last year is brilliant, and to win it is just fantastic. It means so much to me to get input from five business leaders. InvEnterPrize is a springboard for young entrepreneurs like me, encouraging them to refine their business throughout the process.”
Lindsay already sells her plants on Etsy and Ebay and hopes to set up a location to sell in person in East Sussex in the near future.
Huw Morgan, Chair of the InvEnterPrize judging panel, has been involved with the competition since its inception.
“It’s been a pleasure to be involved with InvEnterPrize once more this year and our warmest congratulations to everyone who made it to the final. Over the years the quality of the presentations has improved immensely and the passion everyone put into their presentations on the day is clear. The competition itself is excellent as it helps the students to focus on the core aim of their business, its unique selling point, and why they are different and why we should be supporting them with a £10k prize.”
“The competition also highlights that more and more students are thinking about actually setting up their own businesses. It was relatively formulaic in my day, we applied and moved into a corporate life, never thinking of developing our own business. Now students are thinking of setting up their own businesses, and a number do so even pre University. InvEnterPrize was established to get more of our students to think about creating and running their own businesses, and looking at our entries this year we are succeeding. Let’s hope for even more next year."
The other finalists - Sugar-Cane Straws presented by Liva Zviedre from the Department of Computer Science, Deveji – App Development by Frank Myslek from the Department of Computer Science, Knife-Proof Cloth by James Mooney from the School of Business, Heart Guard by Louis Samuel from the Department of Life Sciences and Green Mountain Tea by Eleni Ziu from the Department of Computer Science - were awarded £1000 each with Sugar-Cane Straws also receiving a further £1000 for the Engineers’ Prize.
Tony Orme, Careers Consultant at Aberystwyth University, has been involved with InvEnterPrize from the very beginning.
“Once more, InvEnterPrize has shone a light on the amazing creativity of our students and their entrepreneurial spirit, and we congratulate everyone on what they have achieved this year and wish them well with their business journey. We now look forward to the next edition and encourage students and graduates to start thinking about entering InvEnterPrize 2025 with what will, no doubt, be another great set of imaginative business ideas and proposals for our dragons to judge.”
“The support of our judges, David Sargen, Huw Morgan, Jamila La Malfa-Donaldson, Jamal Hassim, Peter Gradwell, Kerry Diamond and Dr Rhian Hayward MBE, CEO of AberInnovation, has been incredible again this year. Without them and the support of our alumni community this wouldn’t be possible.”
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