University backs six student start-ups to support practice-based learning

The University’s School of Business and Law has introduced SPARK, a 10-week programme designed to help students move through three fundamental stages of business growth: Build, Pitch and Grow. Students joined the first stage with early business ideas, then attended workshops to explore enterprise, test customer needs, refine their value propositions, and strengthen their business models before progressing to a live pitch. 

Selected students then presented their refined start-up ideas to an investment committee made up of Leeds Trinity academics and external business experts, mirroring the experience of securing investment in the real world. Teams competed for a share of a £1,600 University Seed Fund, with judges assessing each project on the strength of its idea, customer validation, execution plan, and potential commercial or social impact. 

Six student founders were chosen to take the next step in developing their start-ups: Lily Baxendale was awarded £400 for an AI-driven nutrition recommendation app supporting women's hormonal health; Samad Adewale won £400 for an AI-powered rental platform designed to make renting safer in Nigeria; Chidera Laura secured £200 to develop a fintech third party app to ensure peer-to-peer and social commerce transactions are safe and reliable; Chinelo Ikeokpara received £200 to develop an AI-powered platform connecting customers with emergency plumbing services; Christian Emeka won £200 for a same-day gifting marketplace supporting independent local retailers; and Joshua Adoghe secured £200 for a human-AI marketing platform designed for fintech small and medium-sized enterprises. 

The funding marks the beginning of the next phase of the programme, with the six successful founders set to receive one-to-one coaching and weekly support sessions to help transform their ideas into viable ventures over the next eight weeks. 

Dr Salman Ahmad, Senior Lecturer in International Business and Strategy at Leeds Trinity, and SPARK project lead, said: "SPARK is a fantastic example of how Leeds Trinity’s career-led education prepares our students for a competitive job market. The programme is designed to help students develop the confidence, commercial awareness, and problem-solving skills that employers and industries value. I look forward to seeing these excellent ideas transform into viable business ventures."

Ian Holloway, Chief Architect at TM Forum, who chaired the SPARK investment committee said: "Programmes like SPARK matter because they give students the confidence and practical support to turn an idea into something real. What impressed me most was the range and maturity of the six pitches we backed. It was clear the students didn’t treat it as just a class exercises; they were founders ready to build."

One of the successful student founders, Samad Adewale, described the programme as a "massive opportunity" and "the beginning of an interesting and exciting journey". 

Leeds Trinity is a career-led university as has embedded placements in its courses since the 1970s. Now only in its first year, SPARK will continue to grow, with the aim to attract more funding, and invite a wider range of local businesses to contribute their insights and in turn gain access to the talent and enthusiasm of students across a variety of subjects and skills.