Do you have a business idea? The North-West University (NWU) bhive Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) and Technology Transfer and Innovation Support (TTIS) office are looking for innovative business ideas or product inventions.

NWU undergraduate and postgraduate entrepreneurs are thereby invited to enter Leopards Lair Business Competition by submitting their innovative business ideas before 30 May 2022.

The annual Leopards Lair competition encourages and supports student entrepreneurs across the NWU’s three campuses to embrace the value of entrepreneurship as a career choice and become future job creators and employers.

Annelie Steenkamp from bhive EDC says the purpose of this competition is to identify the top student entrepreneurs, showcase their business ideas, and give a kick-start to their businesses by providing seed funding, mentorship and coaching.

“In addition to the training and development which takes place during the competition, the three finalists per category – who will be ranked as the winner, first runner-up and second runner-up – will receive prizes which will help them develop their businesses,” she adds.

“The prizes for this year include seed funding to invest in the development of the business or to pay for coaching and mentorship, prototyping and testing from the TTIS office, bhive EDC business incubation and mentorship and coaching.”

Prize money for the 2022 competition is as follows:
Postgraduate students
Winner: R 19 000 seed funding and R 9 000 towards mentorship and coaching
First runner-up: R 11 000 seed funding and R 6 000 towards mentorship and coaching
Second runner-up: R 6 000 seed funding and R 3 000 towards mentorship and coaching

Undergraduate students
Winner: R15 000 Seed funding and R 8 000 towards mentorship and coaching
First runner-up: R 9 000 seed funding and R 5 000 towards mentorship and coaching
Second runner-up: R 5 000 seed funding and R 3 000 towards mentorship and coaching

For more information and to register, please click here.