Building the Future: Nexus Awards Funding to Spark’s Top Graduate Start-ups

Spark, the University’s dedicated business start-up service based at Nexus, has recently recognised three of its most outstanding ventures with its latest awards – providing not just recognition, but real funding to help these businesses grow.

Spark supports current students and graduates for up to seven years after their studies, offering hands-on guidance, a community of like-minded founders, and a home in Nexus’s incubation space.

The Spark Awards this year mark an exciting milestone with the introduction of the brand-new Nexus Innovation Award – accompanied by prize funding for the top three businesses, and a testament to the strength of the entrepreneurial talent coming through the programme.

First Prize – Ben Pickering, Wx Labs

Wx Labs, founded by Ben Pickering, an Observational Meteorologist, designs novel weather instruments and data collection systems to improve local environmental monitoring and support better weather forecasting.

Discussing Wx Labs’ win, Pickering explained: “We’re delighted to receive the Nexus Innovation Award for Spark Support Business. This funding will help us generate new customer leads through our first exhibitor booth at a key industry conference, as well as support further product trials with potential customers. It is an important step in helping us turn early interest into real commercial opportunities and demonstrate the value of our technology in real-world settings.”

Second Prize – Dr Amanda MacCannell, Pathways Open

Pathways Open, co-founded by Dr Amanda MacCannell and Sandeep Sharda, is on a mission to connect businesses with the right academic minds to solve their research challenges. Having been supported by Spark for one to two years, the business is now gaining real commercial traction – and their £7,500 prize reflects that momentum.

On receiving the award, Dr MacCannell and Sharda shared: “We are so honoured to receive this award from Spark and Nexus. At Pathways Open, we work every day to connect businesses with the right academic minds for their research challenges, and having that recognised by the University of Leeds is a reminder of why we started. This means everything to us.”

The funding will be put to immediate use over the next 90 days. A portion will extend their B2B outreach system – covering both the technical tools and specialist support that are already generating active conversations with pharmaceutical and nutrition brand clients. The remainder will fund attendance at a key industry conference, where Amanda and Sandeep will be presenting Pathways Open to life science and nutrition sector audiences, opening new client conversations and building the pipeline needed to reach their first enterprise revenue milestone.

Third Prize – Husain Alogaily, Compost-It

Compost-It, founded by Husain Alogaily, is tackling one of the most pressing sustainability challenges facing businesses today – food waste. Compost-It helps local businesses recycle their food waste responsibly, and with the support of Spark and Nexus, the business has grown from an initial idea into a fully viable operation.

Nexus itself became Compost-It’s first official business customer, a powerful vote of confidence in what Husain is building. Now, with prize funding in hand, the business is ready to scale significantly.

Husain said: “The support Spark and Nexus have given Compost-It has been instrumental to our growth. Taking part in business accelerators here was crucial in turning our initial idea into an actual, viable business, and Nexus believed in us so much that they became our first official business customer! To now receive a significant

grant with this award is beyond words – we are truly grateful for everything they have done and the faith they have shown in us.”

The prize funding will go directly towards investing in a specialised refuse truck, which will allow Compost-It to increase its operational capacity by 4.5 times – meaning more businesses across West Yorkshire can benefit from a reliable, sustainable food waste collection service.

Find out more about Spark and how to get involved.