Emerging technologies, sustainability, and human-centred designs wow judges at the 15th annual Student Start-up Awards

Twenty ambitious student entrepreneurs have triumphed at this year’s Cardiff University Student Start-Up and Freelance Awards.

The competition featured 20 emerging business ventures, each pitching their ideas in a Dragon’s Den-style showdown. Winners from each category received a share of the £18,000 prize fund to support the growth of their businesses, along with continued mentorship and guidance from the University’s Enterprise and Start-up Team.

The students competed across 4 categories – the Outstanding Founder Award, the Innovative Developer Award, and the Inspiring Idea Award, sponsored by Santander Universities, and the Inspired Engineers Award sponsored by Engineers in Business.

Outstanding Founder Award

The Outstanding Founder grand prize of £5000 was awarded to Class of 2024 graduates Christopher Dixon (Applied Software Engineering), Declan Richardson (Mathematics) and Tomas Richards (Mechanical Engineering) for their company CNIC Software Ltd.

CNIC accelerates compliance for organisations looking to strengthen their cyber resilience by automating cyber assessments, helping organisations save time, reduce cost, and cut through complexity.

The team said: “Winning this award has been an incredible boost for our team toward our early-stage venture. We're planning to use the prize money to get the security certifications our business needs - they're expensive but crucial for working with government and regulated sectors. The support from Cardiff University has been invaluable - from mentoring and resources to connecting us with the right people. We’re excited for the continued support from Cardiff University as we grow to build something meaningful that delivers real-world impact.”

Runner-up: Lewis Bowen (MSc Business Management), Evan Jenkins (BSc Computer Science, Graduated 2024), Adam Shannon (BSc Applied Software Engineering, Graduated 2024), and Tobiah Nott (BSc Applied Software Engineering, Graduated 2024) – Pontiro.

Audience winner: Archie Wilkins (BA Hons Applied Software Engineering, Graduated 2023), Abdul Miah (BA Hons Applied Software Engineering, Graduated 2023) and George Lindh – Fit-In App

Innovative Developer Award

In the Innovation Development Award, Yusif Algurair (2^nd year Astrophysics) and Thomas Orford-Morgan (2^nd year Physics) claimed both the top prize of £3000 and audience prize of £500 with their company Light Works.

Lightworks are developing advanced optical filters for car windscreens to reduce glare from oncoming headlights without compromising visibility, enhancing night-time driving safety.

The team said: “As more vehicles are fitted with powerful LED headlights, drivers are increasingly exposed to intense, distracting glare especially at night. This isn’t just a nuisance; it’s a safety hazard with no widely adopted solution currently in place. Our next steps using the prize fund are to go ahead with getting a patent and a prototype. CU Enterprise has made this whole process really enjoyable and we owe all the credit to Georgina Moorcroft and Michelle Finnegan-Davies.”

Runner-up: Faith Martin Abongo (final year Neuroscience with Genetics) - VivaNova

Inspiring Ideas Award

The Inspiring Ideas Award was won by 3^rd year Philosophy student Elizabeth Adetoye, who received both the first place, and audience prize, winning a grand total of £1500 towards expanding her business Sustainable Smiles.

Sustainable Smiles is focused on developing biodegradable dental suction tips with compostable packaging to reduce plastic waste in NHS dental practices. This solution aims to provide an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional single-use plastics, supporting NHS waste reduction targets and the goal of achieving Net Zero emissions by 2040.

Elizabeth said: “I’m incredibly grateful to have received both the First Place Inspiring Idea Award and the Audience Winner Award. The support from Cardiff University’s enterprise team has been instrumental in helping me bring Sustainable Smiles to life. The idea was inspired by my time as a Green Impact Auditor, where I saw the sustainability challenges faced by dental practices first-hand. This recognition has given me the confidence to keep pushing forward, and I’m excited to continue developing the project as part of the Mercedes-Benz BeVisioneers 2025 cohort.”

Runner-up: Bethany Francis (PhD School of Geography and Planning) and Paige Bicker-Caarten (BEng Civil Engineering, graduated 2022) - Baby Bean

Inspired Engineers Award

The top prize of £1500 in the Inspired Engineers Award was scooped up by 2^nd Year Mechanical Engineering student Alexander Mallon with his company EZCool.

EZCool is a closed, wrist-mounted liquid cooling system designed to lower body temperature. It works by drawing heat from the radial artery and transferring it into a highly heat-conductive liquid. This heated liquid is then circulated and re-cooled using a Peltier element. This system is versatile and could also be reversed to heat a person's body, however, the main goal of the product is to cool.

Alexander said: “I first thought my idea was a bit daft, but once I’d spent some time thinking through and developing my product during competition, I found some renewed confidence and I had a lot of fun doing so. The EzCool is a device aiming to cool down the elderly and other heat-vulnerable people by cooling their inner wrist with pumped cold liquid. Thousands of elderly people die every year from heat exhaustion and far more suffer. By 2050, a 257% increase in heat-related deaths is expected in the UK alone so I hope to reduce that number by deploying EzCools where it’s needed, such as hospitals and retirement homes. The EzCool will be available to the public to buy, and I hope it will bring comfort to those who need it in today’s heating world.

Second place: Oscar Mabon (2^nd Year Mechanical Engineering) and Joel Cartwright (2^nd Year Mechanical Engineering)  - Cardiff Rocket Labs.

Third place: Aaron Sondh (2^nd Year Mechanical Engineering) – VisiShave

Held on 10 April at sbarc|spark, the awards ceremony marked the finale of three days of dynamic and inspiring student pitches presented to a panel of expert judges, including Tom Phillips of Welsh ICE, Sophie Webber of Tramshed Tech, and Amanda Ataou of Business Wales. In addition to the judges’ selections, a live audience vote added an element of peer recognition and community engagement.

Celebrating all those who took part, Georgina Moorcroft, Senior Manager of Student Enterprise and Start-Up, said: “It was another amazing year for the Start-up and Freelance Awards across all 4 categories, and I was blown away by the quality of pitches. It was a joy to celebrate with so many people at the awards evening as we had staff from across the university, friends of the university and a lot of entrepreneurial students who came together to network and support this year’s finalists."

Winning at the Start-Up and Freelance Awards can really help move a business idea forward. Last year’s Outstanding Founder Award winner, 2nd year undergraduate Modern History and Politics student Elliot Allen, used his £5000 prize money to purchase a van to take his student moving and storage company MoveMe to the next level. Our 2024 Inspired Engineers Award winners Hajira Irfan, a final year undergraduate Integrated Engineering student, and Harry Parkinson, a final year undergraduate Physics with Astronomy student, have taken their idea, The Algae Photobioreactor, to dizzying heights, recently being named the 2025 Enactus UK & Ireland National Champions, as well as winning a slew of awards including the British Airways Better World Award, Ford Motor Company C3 Building Sustainable Communities Award, Action4Impact Award, and the Engineers in Business Fellowship prize.

Rhys Pearce Palmer, Innovation Operations Manager at Cardiff Innovations, said: "Inside the sbarc|sparc building there are over sixty organisations which span the private, public, and third sector. The golden thread that brings them together is collaboration and partnership with academia. What better place for students to come to explore and grow their own creative solutions into real enterprises."