Two students have landed a £5,000 investment to help bring their business idea to life.
University of Worcester third-year Business Management students Evan Greenlees and Kasra Salehi secured the funding through a Dragon’s Den-style competition for their start-up, Little Guardians, which aims to help children learn to read while promoting sustainability through storytelling.
The pair won the top prize at this year’s BOSS competition, an annual scheme designed to support student entrepreneurship and backed by Milford Research & Consultancy Ltd in partnership with the University of Worcester.
Libby McCann of Milford Research, who helped organise the event, said: “As a firm, we’re always striving to provide students with possibilities to learn, to grow and to build their own networks.
“We want them to gain self-belief and to make them realise that their dreams are accessible.
“BOSS is one of our many programmes created to achieve this, and it’s always a pleasure to see highly experienced business people coming to the university to give their time and expertise to the student contestants.”
Little Guardians plans to develop a series of 15 books for children aged two to six, that are sponsored by businesses and distributed free to schools.
Kasra Salehi said: “I feel amazing. We started with an idea to help people and make a change in the world, and it feels amazing that a lot of people feel the same about the issue and want to help us.
“This means everything to us, it’s the start of our journey, and we’re going to grow from this every day to meet our goals.”
Other finalists also received investment for their ideas.
Business Psychology student Diana Wing Lee was awarded £2,000 for Foreignteer, a digital platform connecting travellers with micro-volunteering opportunities at NGOs.
Business Management student Fabienne Gengnagel secured £3,000 for The Druid’s Nest, a social enterprise café and wellbeing space for neurodivergent individuals.
Mark McCann, regional director at financial planning firm Attivo and a member of the judging panel, said: “It’s a lot of money, and it means the world to these students, and it will be a really good head start for them as they begin their businesses.
“It was really enjoyable.
“I thought all three projects that were presented by the students were really well thought out.
“They all have a lot of confidence in what they’re doing, and anyone who wants to build a business must have that inbuilt belief.”