INSIGHTS / News

Fantasy Shopper, a company supported by the SETsquared Partnership, has been announced by Amazon Web Services LLC (AWS), an Amazon.com company, as the winner of the fifth annual AWS Start-Up Challenge.

The competition recognises start-ups that use the AWS cloud computing platform. This year AWS received more than 1,500 applications from 78 countries. Fantasy Shopper was awarded US$50,000 in cash and US$50,000 in AWS credits, AWS premium support services for one year and technical mentorship from Amazon Web Services.

Based at the University of Exeter Innovation Centre, Fantasy Shopper is a social shopping game. The shopping platform centralises, socialises and “gamifies” online shopping to provide a real-world experience.

Graham Harrison, Partnership Director of SETsquared, said: “I’m delighted at Fantasy Shopper’s award win – this is recognition of the fact that the UK is home to some of the world’s brightest and best new companies, many of which we support in our innovation centres.”

Chris Prescott, Co-Founder and CEO at Fantasy Shopper, said: “The Innovation Centre has really supported us this year: it’s a fantastic place to be with a great team.”

The SETsquared Partnership is the enterprise collaboration between five universities: Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. The partnership works with academia, industry, students and start-ups to generate economic growth and has the UK’s largest network of incubators for early-stage hi-tech, high growth potential companies. For more information on AWS, visit: http://aws.amazon.com.