Smarta businesses could win £10,000
WHILE the Eurozone crumbles around us, businesses and entrepreneurs are working hard to build upon the shifting rubble. Here is snapshot of their latest activities:
■ The 2012 Smarta 100 competition launches today. It’s a celebration of the most exciting and disruptive small businesses, with a cash prize of £10,000 for the overall winner. The awards are designed to be a pulse-check of the 100 businesses that are growing, innovating and disrupting their respective industries. www.smarta.com/100
■ Also today, Axa Business Insurance launches Business Guardian Angel, a website designed to help support, protect and nurture start-ups. Partnered with Business Link and Start Up Britain, it offers practical advice and free business tools. A competition to win free one-day business consultations is up for grabs. www.businessguardianangel.com
■ Innotribe is holding the European leg of its annual financial technology Startup Challenge in Belfast on 14 June. Semi-finalists of the Belfast Innotribe Startup Challenge will pitch their innovative business ideas to a panel of the financial industry’s leading angels, VCs and decision makers. The winners will go on to compete against the winners from New York and Singapore for the $50,000 prize at Sibos in October. www.innotribestartup.com
■ StartUp Britain, the national campaign set up by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs to stimulate start-up growth in the UK, has appointed serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson as chairman. StartUp Britain has recently launched StartUp Spaces – an online tool that matches empty spaces with start-ups looking for hot desks. www.startupbritain.org/spaces
Twitter: @Philip_Salter