A former student from the University of Bradford is putting up £1.25m to launch a Dragons’ Den-style ‘enterprise ecosystem’ at the university to take business ideas from concept to market.
He’s Dr Murthy Venkata Renduchintala, who studied at the University from 1983-91, and his money will be matched by a similar sum from the University to create the Bradford-Renduchintala Enterprise Ecosystem. It’s objective will be to provide financial and mentoring support from business leaders to help young entrepreneurs. It will be open to students, staff and members of the community, who will be able to pitch ideas and bid for grants.
The former Qualcomm and Intel executive said: “What we are trying to do with BREE is to emulate what has been popular and prolific in many areas of the US and other parts of the world, where academic research ultimately leads towards ground-breaking transformations in real life.
“For example, if you look at many of the technologies that have come out of some very well-known academic institutions in the US and you go forward to today, they are helping create ground-breaking environments. For example, think of how Google or Facebook started.
“This was entrepreneurs in the making who were doing research and undergraduate projects who decided to take those ideas and make them into game-changing commercial entities. But they required a support environment and a gathering of advisers and well-wishers that could chaperone those plans, not just through the good idea phase, but how to create a business entity, and how to ultimately get that business entity developing products that ultimately consumers can see, touch and feel. And that’s what we are trying to do here.”
University Vice-Chancellor Professor Shirley Congdon said: “We are immensely grateful to Dr Renduchintala for his contributions to the university. BREE represents a fantastic opportunity for the University of Bradford to promote its entrepreneurial spirit and become a leading light for enterprise and innovation in the UK and beyond.
“This initiative will also expand our vision of a world of inclusion and equality, where people can make a difference. We want to be known as the place to be to make that difference. The whole idea behind BREE is that if you have an idea today, you can create a different future.”
