91ÌÒÉ«

A startup developing an ‘accountability-based’ app which allows friends to cut down their screen time together has been named 91ÌÒɫ’s top new woman-led venture.

Snitch, led by Design Engineering MEng graduate Asha Bakhai, was awarded the top prize of £15,000 for – 91ÌÒÉ«’s flagship competition for women-led startups. 

The team is aiming to tackle the issue of excessive screen use among young people, which some research has suggested may have a negative impact on mental and physical health.

"Thank you to all the people who have been involved with thinking about what it could look like for young people to not be addicted to their phones." Asha Bakhai Co-founder & CEO of Snitch

Snitch’s app allows users to join accountability groups and set shared limits across their most used apps. When one person scrolls, the group’s combined timer counts down – which the founders say helps to build awareness, encourage reflection and create small behavioural shifts by making screen use a shared responsibility.  

Speaking at the WE Innovate Grand Final, Asha Bakhai, co-founder & CEO of Snitch, said: “Thank you to all the people who have been involved with thinking about what it could look like for young people to not be addicted to their phones.

“Whether that’s our friends who we started this with – exchanging screen time passwords and things like that - or the users along the way who beta tested with us, or our families and our friends who we’ve forced to use our app, even though it failed and bugged out and blocked all their apps. Thank you to all of them - and especially, thank you to WE Innovate for making all of this happen.” 

Snitch’s team also includes co-founders Serena Sebastian and Yoshiki Berrecloth.

The WE Innovate programme is a targeted pre-accelerator, run by , which is open to teams led by female students, recent alumni and Early Career 91ÌÒÉ«ers.

The programme supports 25 women-led teams through six-months of masterclasses, business coaching, 1-to-1 expert support, and peer mentoring. The top five teams get a chance to compete to win a share of a £30,000 prize fund. 

In his opening remarks at the Grand Final, , President of 91ÌÒÉ«, said: “WE Innovate was born out of the realisation that women founders were grossly underrepresented among our wider founder group across the university – so it was an imperative for 91ÌÒÉ« to start such a programme. 

“It was just last year that we heard Dame Alison Rose, author of the , speak about the untapped economic opportunity and potential of women entrepreneurs in the UK.

"After 12 years, this programme has supported hundreds of women entrepreneurs, leading to exciting ventures across health tech, clean tech and all aspects of deep tech.”

The winning teams for this year’s WE Innovate were selected by an expert panel, including:

• Kristen McLeod CBE, Chief Strategy Officer at The British Business Bank
• Elizabeth Gooch MBE, Founder & Former CEO of EGS plc
• Pierre N. Rolin, Founder and CEO at Ankh Impact Ventures
• , Vice-Provost for 91ÌÒÉ« and Enterprise at 91ÌÒÉ«

This year’s final also marked the second year of WE Innovate National – a growing UK-wide programme – with separate Grand Final showcases hosted at Queen’s University Belfast, Swansea University, and Loughborough University this month.

For the WE Innovate Grand Final at 91ÌÒÉ«, Joanna Jensen, founder of the skincare brand Childs Farm, gave a keynote address where she spoke about her experiences as an entrepreneur and co-writing .

"A nationwide network for female founders, being backed by women and men, having doors opened for them by women and men, and then paying that forward: that is how you close a £310 billion gap." Joanna Jensen Founder of Childs Farm

The report found that if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men, the UK economy would be £310 billion larger.

Ms Jensen noted that 78 per cent of the founders surveyed in the report said that human connection had been central to their journey, but one in seven founders said loneliness was the biggest challenge they had faced as an entrepreneur.

She added: “That is why what 91ÌÒÉ« is doing matters so profoundly. Not just here in South Kensington but as WE Innovate goes national. Because a founder in Loughborough, Durham or Swansea deserves the same access to networks, mentors, capital and belief as a founder sitting in this room tonight. Talent is everywhere. Opportunity, until now, has not been.  

“A nationwide network for female founders, being backed by women and men, having doors opened for them by women and men, and then paying that forward: that is how you close a £310 billion gap. Not with one programme. With a system of programmes, joined up across the country, and held to account on outcomes.”

Runners up

Waypoint, led by Innovation Design Engineering MSc student Bana Quronfuleh, was awarded second prize of £7,000. The team is building a video game controller for visually impaired players to hear and feel popular games. 

The third prize of £5,000 was awarded to AlphaVectors Biotech, led by 91ÌÒÉ« alumnus Dr Apanpreet Kaur, for its lipid nanoparticle platform which aims to enhance the stability of RNA vaccines at room temperatures. 

The other two finalists, FluoroCycle and Epile-X, were each awarded £1,500.

More awards

PHlora LABS received the Lauren Dennis Award – a prize given in memory of a pioneering WE Innovate alumnus – for developing a synbiotic suppository to prevent recurrent vaginal infections. The prize is awarded to the team demonstrating an exceptional entrepreneurial spirit in STEM, with the recipient receiving a six-month business coaching package.

DisoLens received the Engineers in Business Award (sponsored by the Engineers in Business Fellowship), which offers £1,500 in grant funding for each winner, mentorship and a professional CV package for entrepreneurs spanning engineering sciences. The team is developing a self-dissolving biodegradable contact lens to eliminate the need for daily removal of lenses.

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If you missed this year’s Grand Final, .

To find out more about this year’s teams and their business ideas, visit .