Venture Crawl is a one-day event where students are introduced to the diverse entrepreneurial eco-system in London.  Students from universities all over the world now take part in this annual event with students in the US, Africa and Asia now being inspired by the event.

This year, Loughborough’s crawl had a sustainability and social action theme with students connecting with innovators, startup founders and a £200m philanthropic investment fund all working to make the world a better place. The day kicked off with Loughborough students from across both campuses being joined at Plexal by students from Queen Mary University for a panel to discuss how we can achieve good growth across London.

The panel saw Director of London Social Ventures Amir Rizwan joined by Marianthe Evangelidis of London Stock Exchange Group and Chief Executive of Plexal Andrew Roughan. The panel signalled London’s Growth Plan and how universities play a pivotal role in supporting innovation and supplying talent to growing companies. As an additional treat, those attending got to sample baked goods from one of east London’s oldest bakeries, Rinkoffs.

The Loughborough Crawl continued with a visit to automotive security experts Canopy. Students met the founder of Canopy, Tarik Safir, and received a demonstration of its technology and heard how corporations like Ford and ADT had supported its journey.

The rest of the crawl saw students visit local spaces devoted to supporting circular economy and creative businesses. Students met with staff and incubated companies at Hackney Bridge, The Loop and Makeit London. Loughborough’s final stop saw them meet up with startups from DOHE Groups Ed Tech Accelerator. Each company was given three minutes to pitch their solution before receiving feedback from the assembled students and angel investor Deborah Okenla.

London’s Venture Crawl then culminated with a ‘pitch off’, co-hosted by Loughborough University London’s Ben Cole. The activity saw all universities putting forward a pitch champion to compete for the biggest prize of all – the pride of being named Venture Crawl champion.

Although Loughborough didn’t win this year, student Daisy Wu who pitched her solution said: "Venture Crawl was an incredible adventure. So informative and inspiring. My idea was developed during sessions at Startup London – to pitch it in front of so many people was an intense and exhilarating experience."

Professor Dermot Hodson, Associate Dean for Education and Student Experience at Loughborough University London said: "Venture Crawl is an event in our annual calendar that really typifies the student experience here at Loughborough University London. For entrepreneurially curious students it gives them a real opportunity to connect and network with the support available in London. Students end the day not just understanding opportunities to innovate but being connected truly connected to them. We are lucky to have the Future Space team putting these events on."

For more information about Venture Crawl and Future Space contact futurespace@lboro.ac.uk