Venturefest prize winners urge businesses to enter £40,000 competition

The top three entrants of last year’s competition are encouraging businesses across Greater Manchester to enter this year’s Innovation Showcase competition.

Organised by Business Growth Hub, part of the Manchester Growth Company, the competition forms part of the Venturefest Manchester 2017 event.

This year the competition has two awards - one for the best start-up business and another for the best established business. Each award comes with a £20,000 prize package for the winner.

It’s free to enter, and all a business needs to do is fill in a short online form. If shortlisted for either category, the business will then will then receive pitching advice and give a short presentation at Venturefest Manchester 2017, at Bridgewater Hall on Thursday 14 September.

The three businesses have blossomed since winning prizes at last year. For example, the digital agency Nothing But Epic won last year’s Innovation Showcase for their Padoq app, which allows users to create functional social communities online.

Nothing But Epic’s managing director, Mike Anderson, said, “Off the back of the competition we’ve had successful validation of the Padoq product. We’ve done a round of investment, and we’ll be launching the product in the autumn.”

“The agency is going well – we hired three new staff within three months, and we’ve starting winning national accounts. Just this week we were named a Rising Star of the UK tech scene by Business Cloud.”

“Venturefest has been great for us.”

To read the full interview with Mike Anderson on BQ Live click here. It also includes exclusive interviews with last year's two runners-up, Swifty Scooters and VST Enterprises to boot. 

Entries for the 2017 Innovation Showcase are now open to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from across the North West. But don't delay! North West businesses have until 6 July to enter the prestigious contest.

To enter, please visit: http://www.venturefestmanchester.com/#Competition

Venturefest Manchester 2017 and the Innovation Showcase competition are both being run by Business Growth Hub. These and other Business Growth Hub projects are part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the GM Business Growth Hub project designed to help ambitious SME businesses achieve growth and increase employment in Greater Manchester.

Businesses looking to access specialist support can visit www.businessgrowthhub.com for more information about their extensive range of services.