Apply Now: Ignite 2025 – UK’s Flagship Social Enterprise Competition for Student and Graduate Founders (£50,000 Fund)

Introduction

Are you a scholar or latest graduate with a daring thought to unravel one of many world’s hardest challenges?

Ignite is the UK’s main social enterprise competitors for scholar and graduate entrepreneurs. Backed by the Ford Family Foundation, Ignite was based in 2024 and has since awarded over £50,000 in early-stage funding, serving to social ventures unlock greater than £280,000 in follow-on funding throughout sectors corresponding to schooling, public well being, refugee assist, local weather motion, and psychological well being.

Whether you’re constructing a for-profit startup, a social enterprise, or a nonprofit enterprise, Ignite provides you the chance to win a share of £50,000 in equity-free grant funding—with a prime prize of £20,000—together with entry to mentorship, workshops, and nationwide publicity.

About the Competition

Ignite 2025 is a high-impact, founder-first pitching competitors tailor-made for early-stage, impact-driven entrepreneurs rising from UK universities.

Selected finalists will pitch reside at an unique occasion in Fleet Street, London on October 23, 2025, in entrance of a panel of skilled judges and a reside viewers.

Why Apply?

• Win as much as £20,000 equity-free funding

• Compete for a share of £50,000 from the Impact Accelerator Fund

• Open to for-profit and nonprofit fashions

• Pitch at a nationwide remaining in central London

• Receive skilled mentorship, teaching, and workshops

• Join a rising community of social innovators

• Gain eligibility for follow-on funding from the Ford Family Foundation

Who Should Apply?

Ignite is open to early-stage social enterprises based by:

• Current college students or latest graduates (throughout the previous 3 years) from UK universities

• Teams with no less than one registered founder who meets the eligibility requirement

• Registered organisations with a social function embedded of their authorized construction (CICs, charities, for-profits with mission locks)

Your enterprise ought to:

• Have a clearly outlined social or environmental mission

• Demonstrate early traction (income, customers, pilots, partnerships)

• Plan to generate no less than 50% of earnings by buying and selling

• Have raised lower than £100,000 in turnover or funding

• Be accessible to attend the reside remaining in London in October 2025

What We’re Looking For

Ignite helps ventures that meet the next standards:

• Purpose: A transparent social/environmental mission with measurable influence

• Sustainability: A viable enterprise mannequin producing buying and selling earnings

• Leadership: A passionate, succesful, and linked founding crew

• Innovation: Original options addressing unmet wants

• Scalability: A plan to develop attain, depth, or systems-level change

• Governance: A authorized construction that helps mission supply and accountability

How to Apply

To apply, candidates should submit:

1. A 5–7 web page pitch deck or 1,500-word marketing strategy

2. A 5-minute video pitch introducing the crew and enterprise

3. A 12-month money circulate forecast

Application Deadline:

thirty first July 2025

Being your application here

Application Journey & Timeline

Evaluation Criteria

All purposes might be judged by a various panel of specialists, together with leaders from the Ford Family Foundation, social enterprise mentors, and sector specialists.

Judging will concentrate on:

• Social Impact: How the enterprise advantages individuals and/or the planet

• Commercial Model: Revenue era and monetary sustainability

• Ambition: The potential to scale or affect systemic change

• Leadership: Founders’ expertise, perception, and motivation

• Innovation: Creativity and originality in strategy

• Need: Clarity and urgency of the issue being addressed

• Governance: Legal and moral construction aligned with mission

Conclusion

Whether you’re simply getting began or able to scale, Ignite 2025 provides early-stage social entrepreneurs a uncommon alternative to safe funding, construct networks, and achieve nationwide visibility. If you have got a enterprise that tackles a social or environmental difficulty with creativity, function, and potential—that is your probability to shine.

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