Pasta la Vista, Office Pantry and Ordable were three of the student teams to win awards at this year’s SETsquared Student Enterprise Awards – and all were students from the University of Bath.
They clearly made an impression of the judges, taking home awards for Best Student Enterprise, Best Graduate Enterprise and Best Game Changing Student Enterprise respectively.
“The number of young people going on to set up their own businesses is increasing year on year”
Food-themed business has been the order of the day for these top student entrepreneurs. Ordo, who’ve already caused excitement and intrigue when it was shortlisted for an entrepreneurial trip to the USA, developed an app called Ordable that allows customers to easily browse, order and pay for food and drink at restaurants on their smartphones.
No more queues: With the Ordable app you can order and pay
for your coffee from the comfort of your cafe table.
Tom Dewhurst, co-founder and CEO at Ordo, tells us “Ordable were very pleased to represent Bath University in the ‘Best Game Changing Student Enterprise category’. The restaurant and cafe industry is falling behind with regard to recent innovations, therefore it is great to be recognised for the change we are stimulating in this area. We would like to thank SETsquared for this recognition and for hosting an excellent event.”
And it looks like the future is looking rosy for the app: “Ordable has recently launched in the Engine Shed in Bristol and we are looking to roll out the service across restaurants and cafes in the following months, ” Tom explains. “It is a very exciting time and we are looking to raise awareness, usage and traction amongst prospective customers.”
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The other Bath student winners were Office Pantry, which delivers tailored snacks, fresh fruit and meeting packs to offices nationwide serving clients such as Deloitte, Deutsche Bank and BT among many others, and Pasta la Vista, which launches in July, a restaurant aimed at ‘Generation Z street food’ diners, fusing a lively, themed bar with a self-service eating area.
Siobain Hone, Enterprise Education Manager at the University of Bath, added: “The number of young people going on to set up their own businesses straight from our SETsquared partner universities is increasing year on year and it’s refreshing to see so many young people from the University of Bath being fearless and taking the leap.”
“There is more help out there now for budding entrepreneurs than ever”
“While the entrepreneurialism route is often perceived as a risky one, there is more help out there now for budding entrepreneurs than ever. With the right support, mentoring and access to funding there is no reason that students and graduates can’t develop their start-ups into national and international businesses.”
Interested in the SETsquared Student Enterprise? Find out more about how to get involved on the SETsquared website. You can also stay up-to-date with the latest SETsquared news via Twitter at: @setsquared.
You can also keep up-to-date with the winning startups on Twitter at: @Ordable_UK and @OfficePantry.
Shona Wright
Shona covers all things editorial at TechSPARK. She publishes news articles, interviews and features about our fantastic tech and digital ecosystem, working with startups and scaleups to spread the word about the cool things they're up to.
She also oversees TechSPARK's social media, sharing the latest updates on everything from investment news to green tech meetups and inspirational stories.
