Start-up businesses take part in Pitch Night Final

The evening came after an intensive six-week accelerator programme where the businesses had worked with mentors from Blenheim Chalcot.

The shortlisted businesses were: Three Brain Training, Cloud Wealth, The Fund Society, WXplr, Stage Portal, C-section UK, KIWI and Petlearnia.

Each pitched for the first prize of £40,000, and after questions and consideration from the judges, the third prize of £10,000 was awarded to Stage Portal, with Petlearnia and C-section UK announced as joint winners of the first prize, being awarded £30,000 each.

‘Coming joint first on the Pitch Night has really broadened my horizons,’ said Joanna Corder, founder of Petlearnia. ‘The funding will bring my business development forward by six months, which is an incredible hand-up at this early stage. It’s also really validating hearing the judges, all of whom are experienced business people, say that my idea and plan are good – it’s given me renewed energy and I’m already back at the laptop getting Petlearnia out to the world.’

Founder of C-section UK, Victoria Holyoak said of her win: ‘Winning the Guernsey Venture Challenge has been so exciting and the whole process has been instrumental to the growth of our company. The Blenheim Chalcot mentorship and support from the Digital Greenhouse were fantastic and really helped both the company develop as well as myself as an entrepreneur and founder. We’re looking forward to the ongoing support from Blenheim Chalcot and Digital Greenhouse and we’re excited to head to London at the end of the month for our next pitch event.’

The shortlisted businesses have the chance to present their pitches again to a range of investors at the Showcase Guernsey event at Scale Space in London this month and will be presented with their prizes at The Veyaon Awards black tie event on 16 November.