A full house gathered on the 8th Floor of Bush House to watch our 10 Idea Factory 2025 competition finalists pitch their innovative solutions to address problems across fast fashion, healthcare, education and community.

3-minute pitches were followed by questions from our judging panel, featuring: Brandon Johnson (CEO at Serac Technologies & Planda and King's Business School alumnus), Kim de los Reyes (Founder and CEO of Seek Health) and Eamon Curtin (Director of IGNITE start-up incubation programme at University College Cork).

Whilst the judges deliberated their decisions, the audience heard from the founders of GROWN and Sundial, two of last year's finalist teams who are currently on the King's Start-up Accelerator. GROWN founder Clarice, and Sundial co-founder Salpie, shared updates on their journey since taking part in Idea Factory last year. 

All winners and finalists will receive 1:1 mentoring sessions with our Experts in Residence and access to co-working space at the Entrepreneurship Institue Hub in Bush House.

Selected from the 10 finalists, the winners are:

1st Place (£4,000)	QueryMinds - An AI tool for faster clinical document analysis and error reduction.	Co-founded by Ubaid Tanzim, Alumnus (Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine)
2nd Place (£1,500)	Project Kaizen - AI-powered personalised learning platform.	Founded by Dunia Mangal, Alumna (Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine)
3rd Place (£1,500)	Ladon Bio - Unlocking p53 protein potential for cancer and ageing research.	Co-founded by Mateusz Hess, Staff (Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences)
4th Place (£1,000)	FORSA - Sportswear with innovative storage for long-distance runners.	Founded by Claire Marianne Lyon, Student (Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences)
People's Choice* (£1,000)	Archif - Marketplace for pre-loved fashion in Lebanon.	Founded by Aya Safieddine, Student (Faculty of Arts & Humanities)

 

*The People's Choice winner was selected via an audience vote on the night.

The 10 finalists were:

Aya Safieddine	Archif	Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Dunia Mangal	Project Kaizen	Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
Sarah Oluwatosin	FemCare	King's Business School
Sanchitha Ratnakara	CocoPac	Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Kwelani Lawton	Whizzy AI	Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Ubaid Tanzim	QueryMinds	Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
Claire Marianne Lyon	FORSA	Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences
Mateusz Hess	LadonBio	Faculty of Natural, Engineering & Mathematical Sciences
Faraz Ahmad	Meeple	Faculty of Natural, Engineering & Mathematical Sciences
Roshaine Wright	StarShare	Faculty of Arts & Humanities

Idea Factory is the Entrepreneurship Institute’s flagship idea generation competition. Each year, we put the call out for the biggest, brightest and best ideas across the university and through a series of workshops, give our contestants the skills they need to make their ideas viable and scalable through entrepreneurial skills.

If you have a potential idea for a business, you can: 

• Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to be the first to hear about entrepreneurial opportunities like Idea Factory.
• Book an Idea Feedback Session with a member of the Entrepreneurship Institute team to share detail and receive feedback on next steps.  
• Join the Women Entrepreneurs Network, a community of King’s students, alumni and staff that supports idea and entrepreneurial skills development for founders identifying as female or non-binary. 

Photo credit: Nathan Clarke Photography.