Influencer marketing start-up wins Wolfson Enterprise Competition 2023

Winners of the Wolfson Enterprise Competition 2023

The Wolfson Enterprise Competition – now in its third year – offers Cambridge affiliated teams the chance to pitch their start-up ideas to a judging panel of entrepreneurs and business experts.

Hypesetters won from a strong field of five other finalists, whose ideas ranged from carbon capture to a unique approach to an aggressive form of brain cancer, and a platform that mints customer reviews as NFTs.

Hypesetters aims to scale influencer campaigns and minimise cost with a platform that leverages AI, data analysis, and automation. The team is composed of Wolfson alumnus Louis de Benoist (Advanced Computer Science, 2020) and Trinity College alumnus Khalid Aleem.

The two met while studying Computer Science at the University. Louis has experience in theoretical machine learning and software engineering, and helped develop Elyze, number one on the French app store with over three million downloads. While Khalid has experience in software engineering and applied machine learning and has worked at the Swiss Office for Defence Procurement (armasuisse).

"It was definitely unexpected result,” said Louis, “but it's a good sign that we're addressing an important area that needs innovation and investment. Advertising is undergoing a radical change, where micro-influencers are becoming the new drivers of consumer behaviour and preferences. Through Hypesetters, it is our aim to empower and support these emerging voices in the digital space."

Online dental company Smyle picked up second prize, while the Audience Choice award went to GlioQ, a unique approach to an aggressive form of brain cancer, founded by Wolfson PhD student and Gates Scholar Nemira Zilinskaite and Selwyn’s Jocelyn Tang.

The Enterprise Competition – now in its third year – is run by the Wolfson Entrepreneur Society and offers a cash prize as well as mentoring and network connections for Wolfson College and Cambridge affiliated start-ups.

"It's been another great success this year,” says Sian Cook, Director of College Networks, “the standard of the pitches was very high and it was a tough decision for the judges. Wolfson has become a home for entrepreneurs and I'm delighted that the competition is going from strength to strength".