Team Innovating Water

Saving lives through clean water and bringing soldiers closer to their loved ones were the winning ideas of a Dragons' Den style competition.

Innovating Water and Caribu were announced as the overall winning teams sharing in £12,000 worth of prizes at the Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Design (IE&D) Business Plan Competition held at Imperial College Business School.

Last Thursday seven shortlisted teams were given the opportunity to present their business plans to a judging panel of professional venture capitalists and angel investors who provide capital for a business start-up.

Innovating Water won the main award of £10,000 and also received a notable mention for their social enterprise business. The team have created a water purification unit that can be used in developing countries to harvest rainwater and turn it into drinkable water.

Currently, 1.6 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases including cholera, mostly in developing countries. Of these deaths, 90 per cent are children under five. This is because many people do not have access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

Innovating Water, made up of MBA students at the Business School, have developed a prototype device that uses the Sun’s UV rays to purify water. They have already trialled it in Kisumu, Kenya where it provided 500 people with access to clean and safe drinking water.

They also worked with the community in order to install the system and raise awareness.

Team Caribu

Team Caribu (pictured above)

Team Caribu, made up of MSc students at the Business School, were the runners up in the competition. They won £2,000 to develop an app that will allow families separated by distance such as those in the armed forces to have better communication with their children. Users of the app will be able to read interactive stories to their children from either an iPad or iPhone.

The event was the culmination of the Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Design Programme. Student teams with the business plans that had the best potential were selected by academics from the Entrepreneurship Hub at the Business School to enter the Competition.

The teams were presented with their awards at a prize-giving ceremony held last Thursday.

Maxine Myers caught up with the judges and picked their brains to find out what makes an ideal business plan. She also spoke to the winning teams to learn more about their successful ideas.