Could your business be a winner? The AXA Startup Angel competition, from AXA Business Insurance in partnership with the Evening Standard, is back for a third year.
Two winning entrants will each receive the top prize of £25,000 of funding each to start or build a new venture, business insurance for a year thanks to AXA, and mentoring from the AXA Startup Angels.
What’s more, four further businesses will receive fantastic runners-up prizes – each is worth more than £18,000, and includes a profile article on their business in the Evening Standard, and mentoring with a member of the Evening Standard team.
Three runners up will be selected by the judges, with a fourth awarded to the People’s Choice winner.
All shortlisted entries not selected as overall winners or runners-up will be asked if they would like to be included in the People’s Choice poll, which will see ES readers vote for their favourite business idea. Each shortlisted business will receive a pair of tickets to the awards event.
A further 20 winners will be drawn at random from all completed entries, each winning a pair of tickets to the awards event.
How to enter and competition process
Visit axastartupangel.standard.co.uk
Complete your submission before 23.59 on Sunday 2 June 2024.
A panel of judges including the AXA Startup Angels, an independent judge, a judge from AXA and a judge from the Evening Standard will select two winners and three runners-up.
A fourth runner-up will be decided via the People’s Choice Poll, where ES readers will vote for their favourite business idea from those submissions. All shortlisted entrants will be asked to take part in the People’s Choice Poll on or before 22 June 2024 and will be offered tickets to the awards event.
What are the judges looking for?
Submissions will be judged based on the following criteria:
- You tell a clear and compelling story which inspires the judges
- You display drive, passion and excitement for the business idea and tell a great story about your startup business, and show that you would be a good ambassador for the AXA Startup Angel campaign and for AXA
- You demonstrate a clear understanding of your target market; where your product or service will be positioned; and the problem that your product or service solves, or the solution it provides
- Your submission must also clearly account for how you intend to spend the £25,000 prize money and how you anticipate benefitting from the mentoring.
Who is eligible to enter?
The competition is only open to the following individuals who:
- Are residents of the UK aged 18 and over and who are based in the UK at the time of entry, and who have not been declared bankrupt in the UK within the last 10 years, and who do not hold a criminal record for an offence committed in the last five years or an older offence which is not considered spent
The business idea described in the submission must:
- Either not already be registered or be actively trading in the UK, or have been actively trading in the UK for fewer than 12 months as of 23.59 on 2 June 2024
- Have fewer than 10 employees if actively trading;
- Be an original idea and not a copy of a business that already exists
- Not rely on ideas or concepts trademarked by an existing UK business, use protected marks or infringe copyright in any way.
- Entry is restricted to one entry per business. Duplicate entries will be disqualified.
What does the entry process entail?
The entry will require you to register as a user for the competition platform at axastartupangel.standard.co.uk using your name, email and creating a password.
When registering, we recommend opting in to receive the communications relating to your submission so you don’t miss any reminders or impending deadline alerts. Once registered, you can start and save parts of your submission and return to complete at any time before the deadline.
Once you have registered as a user of the platform, you will be asked for some information about yourself and then your big idea or existing small business.
Next, you will be asked two questions and will have a maximum of 200 words to answer each.
Question 1: Tell us about your business idea. What problem or customer need does it address?
Question 2: What would winning this prize mean for you and your business? How would you spend the £25,000 and what would you get out of the mentoring?
Finally, you will be asked to upload a video of a maximum length of one minute in avi, .m4v, .mov, .mavi, .m4v, .mov, .mp4, .mpeg, .mpeg4, or mpg digital format, with a maximum file size of 250MB.
In this short video, you should give us your elevator pitch. Tell us about you and why you are passionate about your business idea. Why should we choose you?
Once you have uploaded and completed all the required fields you will be asked to agree to the Terms & Conditions of the competition, and then you must submit your entry.
Sucessful shortlisted entrants will be contacted after the closing date.
Please read full terms here before entering.
