Your impact on innovation

How you're helping student entrepreneurs to succeed.

Supporting student enterprise

Easing the burden of laundry in developing countries.

Nav and a group of women sat around a manual washing machine

Moved by the back-breaking stories of families in refugee camps hand-washing clothes, alumnus Nav Sawhney developed The Washing Machine Project. He designed a low-cost manual device that uses just a third of the volume of water consumed by an electric machine.

The Project has been supported by a £15,000 Innovation Award donated by fellow alumnus His Excellency Khalil Foulathi, as well as £2,000 from the Santander Entrepreneurship Fund.

50 machines have already been installed in a refugee camp in Iraq.

Into the Dragons' Den

Our annual competition offers enterprising students the opportunity to pitch for up to £5,000 in direct investment from our alumni ‘Dragons’.

“I found the experience empowering,” says Gold Scholar Rachelle Wabissa, who won funding for her UniPlanner venture. “Not only did the Dragons believe in me, they were willing to invest in me.”

New to the panel last year was alumnus Nick Wood, who also supports the Gold Scholarship Programme.

6 student projects received investment from our Dragons in 2019-20

Case study

Sport & Exercise Science alumnus, Jordan Harry

“I set up my own speed-reading and memory training company, StudyFast, in my first year of university.

"I really got stuck into the entrepreneurship activities on offer – I participated in the Business Plan Competition, Apps Crunch and Dragons’ Den, and even worked part-time as a student member of staff for SETsquared.

"Thanks to the support I received, StudyFast has taught over 20,000 people from 147 countries. I now volunteer at networking events and skills sessions to help Bath students.”

Boosting enterprise at Bath