Are you a budding entrepreneur? Enter the Tata Varsity Pitch 2025

Nearly one in three UK adults now either run their own business or plan to start one in the next three years, and it’s not hard to understand why.

Rather than submit to the nine-to-five or zero-hour, becoming a founder is a chance to forge one’s own path, pursue big dreams and perhaps, even, change the world—all the while creating jobs and contributing to the economy.

“Entrepreneurship has long been one of the UK’s real global success stories, a real global strength,” says Timothy Barnes, CEO of the Centre for Entrepreneurs, the leading UK entrepreneurship charity. “But this is a tough climate for entrepreneurs right now, so there’s a real need for this kind of support.”

That’s the impetus behind the Tata Varsity Pitch program, a prestigious annual UK competition funded by the Indian multinational Tata Group to help supercharge the journeys of would-be founders. The prize? £15,000 in no-strings-attached, equity-free funding. And in this, its 16^th year, the Tata Varsity Pitch program brings the Centre for Entrepreneurs on board as a charity partner.

The competition is unique for several reasons.

Firstly, it encourages entrants who have little more than an ambitious idea. It is specifically aimed at early-stage entrepreneurs who are either still at university or have graduated within the last five years.

Secondly, there’s the length and breadth of mentorship that entrants receive throughout the competition and beyond, courtesy of Tata businesses. The group employs over a million people across 30 companies, including household names like Tetley and Taj Hotels. Entrants can learn from the designers at Tata Elxsi, engineers from the luxury automotive manufacturer JLR, tech experts from IT consultancy TCS, and more. There is further guidance from the Centre for Entrepreneurs, which will provide access to StartUp Navigator, its AI tool for supporting the development of business ideas. “The huge amount of expertise that goes into this—from shortlisting to coaching and mentoring—makes it like a world-class, super-charged accelerator,” says G Subramanian, CTO - UK & Ireland at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

Lastly, the profile of the competition is national. The grand final is one of Global Entrepreneurship Week’s flagship events, and the program counts WIRED as a partner: WIRED Consulting’s Managing Director, Catherine Crump, will sit on the grand final judging panel.

For Tata Group, the competition plays into the company’s wider mission. Two-thirds of Tata Sons, the principal holding company, is held by philanthropic trusts, which support education, health, livelihood generation, and art and culture. “Tata Varsity Pitch is a great way for Tata to support innovation,” says Adam Barriball, Business Development and Brand Director at Tata Limited. “Our teams are excited to continue to put time into developing new ideas, new skills, and to invest in the young talent of the future.”

For past winners like Navjot Sawhney, founder of The Washing Machine Project, which develops hand-cranked, off-grid washing machines for those without reliable electricity or water, the diversity of the Tata ecosystem proved invaluable.

Sawhney’s invention began life as a prototype consisting of a salad-spinner and socks. By the time he won Tata Varsity Pitch in 2021—having participated in the 2019 and 2020 competitions—he had a fully-fledged model, but without the means to manufacture en masse. “Our machines are heavily reliant on manufacturing, so we were introduced to JLR,” says Sawhney. In addition to providing advice on production, JLR hosted a hackathon to accelerate the creation of a second-generation machine that’s more cost-efficient while also being easier to assemble, repair, and distribute.

There was also a direct consequence from winning the £15,000 prize money: It meant The Washing Machine Project could afford a new pilot program in Iraq. This was then featured on the BBC and generated further funding opportunities, which helped them reach 150,000 more users. “It was an incredible butterfly effect,” says Sawhney.

Others, like 2024 winner PulpaTronics—a sustainable tech startup that creates RFID tags made from paper rather than plastic and metal—found itself using Tata companies to explore alternative markets. While founder and CEO Chloe So always envisaged the main use case to be retail clothing tags, with the help of program mentors, PulpaTronics began to investigate alternative use cases for the technology.

Through the mentoring, So also learnt something she hadn’t much considered, but soon realized would be crucial: How to be an effective boss as her workforce starts to swell. “You’re hiring interns, you’re growing your team—so what are the work processes that you’re instilling?” she says. “How do you motivate people?”

To take part in Tata Varsity Pitch, entrants must submit a one-minute video pitch for one of five categories, each of which will be judged by relevant Tata executives. The judges will decide who advances to the bootcamp stage to develop their skills and pitch at the grand final. This year, there will be more expert advice on offer than before, as Tata will be providing post-competition support to all of the category winners, as well as the Grand Final Champion. In addition, Tata and the Centre for Entrepreneurs are building out their alumni network to make it easier for all entrants to contact each other, alongside hosting a regular series of events and activities. “We’re really looking to take Tata Varsity Pitch to the next level,” says Barriball.

Even for those who don’t win, simply taking part in the process can be transformative. Consider Hanan Tantush, founder of Intotum. When her grandfather required a stoma after cancer surgery, he could no longer wear his regular trousers. Tantush looked online for options, but there were none; those with specific needs were cutting holes out of their clothes. She entered Tata Varsity Pitch in 2023 as a recent graduate from the London College of Fashion. She didn’t have money, or connections, or much of a detailed business plan. “I literally just had samples,” she says.

Although she didn’t pick up the prize, she made the semi-finals, met other participants, honed her figures and marketing strategy, and—with the help of Tata’s experts—made her first pitch deck. But more importantly, in learning how to shape an idea into a proposal, and a proposal into a working business, she gained the most crucial of all things, something that can’t be put on a CV, or put onto slides: She gained self-belief. “It was a vote of confidence,” she says. “It was a vote of confidence in me.”

To enter this year’s Tata Varsity Pitch, go to varsitypitch.org. The application deadline is 12pm, 22 October 2025.

Open only to current registered students or those graduated in 2020 or after.

Restrictions and application criteria apply.

No cash equivalent.

Full T&C’s at https://www.varsitypitch.org/terms-and-conditions