BellaMoon Wins Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Award for Business Start-up idea
Irene Breen, Executive MBA student and 'mumpreneur' has fought off over 2,000 entries throughout the UK to win her section in the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship competition with her business, BellaMoon.
Launched in 2011 the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards has grown to be the UKs largest student and graduate business pitching competition who reward entrepreneurs by offering cash prizes, mentoring and start-up support and have so far given away more than £260,000 to start-ups and small businesses.
Irene Breen, Executive MBA student and 'mumpreneur' has fought off over 2,000 entries throughout the UK to win her catergory (Pre-Revenue) in the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship competition with her business, BellaMoon which is a new baby breastfeeding product which is coming to market soon. Irene traveled to London to compete in the final of the competition to a panel of judges including:
- Javier San Felix, He
- ad of Retail and Business Banking and Deputy CEO, Santander UK
- David Bartram, Head of Ventures, Unltd
- Rob Love, Chairman, crowdfunder.co.uk
- Professor Cara Aitchison, President and Vice-Chancellor, Cardiff Metropolitan University
- Adam Ball, General Manager, Talent Cupboard
Irene went through a lengthy process to achieve this accolade.
- Submitted a Business Model Canvas & short video to get shortlisted to top 30 regional finalists
- Travelled to Northumbria university to compete against 10 others for top 2 place in the region
- Is now travelling to London to compete against top 6 (best 2 out of every region)
Her Prizes include:
- £20,000 of equity-free seed funding
- Mentoring from one of the judges at the national final
- Five page brochure or e-commerce website hosted for six months (Provided by Talent Cupboard)
- An additional support package (details to be announced in 2017)
- A fully funded intern.
Irene has also been quite successful locally, she recently won the ‘Best Emerging Business’ at the Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards and has secured funding from Techstart NI and has recently become an Invest NI client.
Over the past year, she has been supported by the Enterprise Advisors in the SU as well as the team in the Santander branch located in the SU.
CONGRATULATIONS IRENE!