Three new social enterprise ventures that had recently participated in the Aspect Student Accelerator Programme (ASAP), supported by the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre, featured in a national showcase event.
ASAP brought together a community of like-minded student and alumni entrepreneurs who are seeking to create scalable socially impactful businesses. All participants are contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, through the socially-responsible running and output of their businesses. Nineteen teams – three of which were from The University of Manchester - participated in the pilot programme, which launched in September 2020.
Working to maximise social impact presents a unique set of challenges to start-ups. The programme content adapted existing frameworks and tailored them to social ventures to build sustainable businesses with clear and measurable impact outcomes.
ASAP was delivered through a series of online workshops by industry leaders covering start-up essentials from product development and sales strategy, to operations and leadership. This is complemented by tailored online resources, community outreach assignments, and a bespoke speaker series featuring some of the world's top social entrepreneurs. Notable guest speakers included top 10 UK Social Entrepreneur Sharath Jeevan, and co-founder and CEO of Nunbelievable, Bryan Janeczko.
The accelerator ended with a Demo Day on Wednesday, 27 January 2021 where our entrepreneurs pitched their business proposals to potential investors.
The three University of Manchester start-ups were:
Arkisites
Developed by UoM alumni Elijah Ajuwon
Arkisites is dedicated to bridging the access gap between minority ethnic groups, young people and the technology sector. In an increasingly technology-centric world, Arkisites is working to create opportunities for young people to develop confidence and learn the skills they need for future employment in the digital tech sector.
Open Source Policy
Co-founded by UoM alumni Genevieve Ryan
Open Source Policy helps people achieve change in the healthcare system, keeping patients safer and reducing inequality while saving time and money for the NHS. It understands people’s experiences to develop proposals for change, testing ideas through pilots run in partnership with healthcare providers, before offering policymakers evidence-backed recommendations.
Tatu Nurse
Developed by UoM alumni and Venture Further 2020 winner, Samuel Mugisha
Tatu Nurse is a social enterprise that empowers nurses to be more productive. Many countries face a critical shortage of nurses. As a result, the quality of bedside monitoring is inadequate; patients deteriorate or even die. Tatu Nurse provides the essential technologies to better manage patients and improve efficiency in healthcare for developing countries.
The new Aspect Student Accelerator Programme (ASAP) was the first joint-university accelerator of its kind in Europe, connecting students from 8 top UK universities from within the Aspect community with academics and industry leaders to develop their social ventures.
The University of Manchester is part of the ASPECT network of eight leading UK universities that participated in Europe's largest social science accelerator programme - Aspect Student and Alumni Accelerator Programme (ASAP). This is part of a £5 million government initiative to promote social sciences innovation.