Venture Crawl is a one-day event where students are introduced to the diverse entrepreneurial eco-system in London. Students from universities all over the world took part in the annual event, with 13 universities across London as well as those in the US, Africa and Asia coming together to celebrate their ecosystems.
For 2026, Loughborough’s crawl had a ‘good growth’ theme with attendees visiting innovators and startup founders on the doorstep and slightly further afield.
The first stop saw Loughborough partner with Queen Mary University to host a panel introducing the concept of Good Growth. Duncan O’Brien, Founder and CEO of Dalston Drinks, joined Marianthe Evangelidis, Sustainability Lead at the London Stock Exchange and Chair of Capital Enterprise, along with Francesca Collorca, Innovation Lead for the London Legacy Development Corporation, and Deborah Okenla, Founder of YSYS, an organisation that supports early-stage founders and investors.
Loughborough’s team then walked over to Sports Interactive’s offices (the folks who make the Football Manager video game) to learn about how Matt Hunter is developing a new product, FMdb targeting football clubs. Further local visits were taken to the social enterprise Hackney Bridge and Europe’s biggest innovation space, Plexal. At Plexal they met members from The Loop and Badu Sport before the crawl got on a bus and headed for London’s financial capital. This final visit saw the Loughborough crawl visit DOHE’s offices in 22 Bishopsgate. They met startups who are part of a £1bn programme to transform education.
The crawl culminated with a ‘pitch off’, co-hosted by Loughborough University London’s Ben Cole. The activity saw all universities putting forward a pitch champion to compete for the biggest prize of all – the pride of being named Venture Crawl champion. Loughborough’s pitcher Emily Jones, who pitched her scout themed clothing brand Scouter said:
It was an incredible experience to get up and pitch Scouter in front of so many people. Venture Crawl was a great opportunity for me as a Year in Enterprise student to investigate the entrepreneurship space as well as make contacts and connections for my network. Seeing other students' startups and innovations was inspiring. To receive a shoutout from the judges for Scouter was hugely rewarding – I would recommend Venture Crawl to any Loughborough students starting an entrepreneurial pursuit – it is well worth the trip.
Professor Dermot Hodson, Associate Dean for Education and Student Experience at Loughborough University London, said of this year's event:
Venture Crawl is an event in our annual calendar that really typifies the student experience here at Loughborough University London. For entrepreneurially curious students it gives them a real opportunity to connect and network with the support available in London. Students end the day not just understanding opportunities to innovate but being connected truly connected to them. We are lucky to have the Future Space team putting these events on.
If you missed this year’s Venture Crawl, next year’s event will take place on 10 March 2027.