Overview
The Santander X UK Awards is Santander’s annual entrepreneurship competition for emerging businesses. To date the programme has supported thousands of early-stage entrepreneurs and provided more than £1 million of funding over the last 14 years. Traditionally a competition for student and graduate entrepreneurs, since 2023 applications in the Startup category have been extended to include non-university affiliated businesses.
Last year’s National Final was held at Unity Place, Santander’s new headquarters in Milton Keynes, and featured judges including musician, presenter, and investor Tinie Tempah, former Olympic gold medallist and entrepreneur Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, former Dragon’s Den star and entrepreneur Sam Jones, founder of Gener8, alongside Santander UK’s CEO Mike Regnier and Chairman, William Vereker.
Categories
The Startup category is for incorporated UK businesses who are growing and looking to scale. The University category is for early-stage university businesses and entrepreneurs who are preparing their go-to-market strategy and are looking to launch.