STARTUP FROM COLLEGES

    Life at university is about more than getting a degree.  Students across the UK are setting up societies and businesses based on their life styles.  So you have everything from clothing businesses to startups that teach cookery focused on plant-based food springing up on campus.

The Guardian reports that Nafisa Baker, 23, a Muslim who struggled to find stylish, modest clothes as a student at University College London decided to start her own fashion site Amaliah, which provides young women modest clothing options.  She has been overwhelmed by the feedback she has received, and says everyone is surprised that personal frustration, and not a love of fashion, motivated her.

Blue light from screens was the thing that annoyed tech addict Dhruvin Patel, 23, enough to push him to start a business while studying optometry at City University London.

 He was addicted to his phone and tablet and then realized the exposure to the light affects sleep.

So he developed a protective screen that viewers can place over smart phones, tablets and computer screens.  He has since sold over 5,000 Ocushield products globally, and was asked to supply screen covers for the Welsh national rugby team.

For Andrew Norton, 22, it was a lover for fitness that motivated him to start a business while still at Nottingham Trend University.  As a regular protein supplement user, he got frustrated with having to by huge tubs  of one flavour.  So he developed Which Whey? that supplies servings of ready measured protein supplements,  personalized for individuals depending on their sporting goal.  College seems to be the place to get more than just an education.

Having learnt jewelry design, Delhi girl Rittika Bindal was ready to set up her own online jewelry portal in 2015 with her brother Himanshu.  She went out to search for office space in the city, and that is when she was struck with a problem. “The exorbitant office space rates.  There was a lock-in period of three years and we had to pay the one year security deposit.  For a start up, three years was too much.”  She realized this was something that everyone starting up like her faced. She put her plans on hold and the siblings decided to start a co-working space instead.Named one internet, the space houses more than 100 startups in Delhi and has centers coming up in Gurgaon and Noida.“Here the startups only have to pay a security deposit  of one month and get all the facilities, like free wifi, mentoring sessions, and investor  meet ups.”  She says

During the 10 years he spent with City Bank and HSBC, Anish Williams saw the way traditional modes of payment worked.  Around 2010, he realized that in the FMCG space, banks weren’t fast enough for the changing times. “For a consumer, the payment process could have been faster and simpler. Technology could have been used to respond to a customers need.  But Banks  were lagging.  So I decided to build something which could respond faster to the customer.”  He quit his job at HSBC and started  TranServ, a payment solution company in 2011.  A consumer wanting to complete a payment or split bills with another user can do so by downloading an app. Having initially put in his own capital, Williams bagged $15 million from  Micromax,  Spice Fund  and Nirvana Ventures.  TranServ   has 10 million users and has tied up with merchant partners like BookMyShow, JustDial and Micromax.   .