The World of VOOM

With public voting now open for Virgin Media Business’ VOOM2016 entrepreneur competition, we thought we’d share some initial data insights on the people who’ve been throwing their hats into the ring for a share of the £1m prize fund.

Over 1,200 businesses from across the UK and Ireland have already registered and, while many of them have yet to submit their final pitches for voting hundreds of applications have been completed and are now scouting for votes here.

Unsurprisingly, the greatest number of VOOM2016 applications has so far come from London. It’s the UK’s largest city by a long way; 4 times the size of the next largest, Birmingham, and the third largest city on the European continent behind Istanbul and Moscow.  The roll call of UK cities continues with Bristol, Manchester, and then Birmingham as having submitted the most number of pitches - so far…

Overall, the VOOM2016 site has been visited by entrepreneurs based in 2,200 cities in 142 countries across the globe.

The next 14 weeks of the competition will include a huge public vote, a 29 hour Pitch-a-thon, and a series of competitive face-to-face workshops. And, of course, there’ll be the finale which will feature Sir Richard Branson, alongside a handful of guest judges, handing out an impressive array of cash prizes and awards.

The VOOM2016 competition is designed for start-ups, full of potential in the early exciting stages of pulling their ideas together, as well as from small businesses with a success story ready to VOOM.

Wherever you are in the UK or Ireland, get online now and get your pitch started today.

Pitches for VOOM2016 must be submitted by 10 May as voting will close on 23 May.