Varsity Sparks

Competition Closed! Final Results Below. Congratulations to all Teams.

Disposably

Driving the adoption of the Circular Economy in Takeaway Packaging through Science, Human Performance, and Design! - A Social Enterprise, Rethinking Plastics! When you order ta

By Conor Brennan, Rutticka Kedare, Rachael Sleath, Evan Murphy

EthiCart

Do you often feel overwhelmed by the amount of information around climate change? It’s hard to tell what actually makes a product sustainable and what claims are just greenwashin

By Laura Brennan, Lara Páircéir

Speakeasy

An innovative platform transforming student well-being. Speakeasy is a wellbeing-focused classroom management system used by teachers and school officials to gain analytical ins

By Tara Gibney, Erin Hession, Eoin O'Malley,

ReFRAME

We are ReFRAME, a social enterprise committed to promoting and empowering sustainable transport by developing commuter bikes made from recycled plastic. Our bikes will offset plast

By Timothy McGrath, Caoimhe McGuirk, Aodh Ó Gallchóir, Niamh

Diglot

Diglot is a language learning publishing company. Research has shown that traditional methods of language education do not work - painful memorisation, repetition and tedious gramm

By Evan McGloughlin, Cian McNally

KleanBeans

Klean Beans is a social enterprise aiming to create natural, affordable skincare products made from repurposing spent coffee grounds that would otherwise be sent to landfill. Used

By Tim O’Kelly, Roisin Clune, Ben Herlihy, Ailbhe King

VegaNite

VegaNite - the worlds first social media platform & marketplace specifically tailored to sustainability-focused individuals Do you care about the environment and want to meet ot

By Tobias Luken, Conan McLucas, Tomas Baltrunas

InfoSafe

InfoSafe will provide a platform which will better educate consumers on data security and will work to stop companies from using data to manipulate their customers. InfoSafe is

By Andrew Fahey, James Barry, Sarah Chifor, Killian Larkin

Prep n' Chef

This launch stems directly from the COVID-19 pandemic and the market shock that it has brought forth. In response to this, a number of features have been included in this innovatio

By Aoife O'Leary, Niamh Duggan, Mary Leneghan, Inez O'Callaghan

The Bubble

• The Vision: Create a platform for new and emerging artists and support personnel across all disciplines in the Arts industry to display and advertise their talents. • The

By Ronan Kelly, Morgan Cocoman

Competition Rules

Investment Rules

You must spend all of your available funds before your investments will appear on your chosen campaigns.
All third-level students are allocated €10,000 to invest regardless of whether they have submitted an idea or not.
€4,000 - maximum investment in a campaign.
€6,000 - maximum total investment in campaigns from a single college.

Prizes

There is a total of €10,000 in cash prizes for the ideas with the most investment. €5,000, €3,000, €1,000 will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams respectively with two spot prizes for €500.
The winners will also receive mentorship packages.
The student with the best investment performance across the two rounds of crowdfunding will win an iPad.

Competition Format

The initial entries will be evaluated by judges from the Irish Graduate Network who will short-list the 30 best ideas.
These 30 teams will be invited to create a crowdfunding campaign. Each team will upload a 3-minute video and a short slide deck, explaining their idea in more detail to their campaign.
The top 10 ideas that receive the most investment funding from the students will go forward to the Final.
The semi final round ends on 4th April at 5pm.
The final round ends on 11th April at 5pm.

About Varsity Sparks

Do you have an amazing business idea? Take the first step to turn your idea into a business reality.

Varsity Sparks is a student crowdfunding competition that brings together third-level students from all over the island of Ireland to find the best new entrepreneurial ideas.

The unique aspect of this competition is that students choose the winners. Students are allocated virtual funds to invest in their favourite ideas. Any student can invest regardless of whether or not they have submitted a business idea to the competition.There is €10,000 in cash prizes to be won by the ideas with the most investment.

Varsity Sparks was created by students from different colleges around Ireland in partnership with Spark Crowdfunding.The aim of the competition is to nurture the next generation of student entrepreneurs in Ireland.

Key Dates

11th March

- Deadline for competition entries
24th March

- Crowdfunding Preliminary Round begins
4th April

- Crowdfunding Final Round begins
11th April

- Winners announced

Welcome to Varsity Sparks

The entrepreneurial competition where student’s virtual investments decide the winners.